Of Ghosts And Wizards
by Adrian Winter
Summary: Suspicious from a lack of ghost activity, Danny, Sam, and Tucker investigate the ghost zone in search of clues. What they find causes them more trouble than they would have liked. DP/HP crossover
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is something that I've been wanting to write for a while, but was too lazy to sit down and think about. I got a lot of good ideas for this fic from my little sister Tatiana. I debated for a while about which category to put this in, but I definitely knew that I wanted it to be a surprise what the second Universe would be; this is the result. Hopefully the small hints that I gave won't have given it away already...

It may have character death. It depends on how mean I want to be to Danny. Most likely there will be hints of typical pairings, but it won't be a romance centered fic, for the most part.

Enjoy!

**Edit July 1, 2007:** I fixed some stuff, mainly changing the RV into the Spector Speeder like it should be... and other little grammar and spelling details. Nothing major to the plot though, don't worry.

**Edit November 12, 2007:** Fixed a few more things. I've rearranged the excerpts with the evil guys so that it'll make a bit more sense later on. Sorry for any confusion.

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**Of Ghosts and Wizards**

CHAPTER 1

A foreboding figure with red, snake-like eyes, sat enthroned at the head of the room, surrounded by a mass of his followers, all with strange, draping black garments and white masks. One of his followers was speaking to him, in lowered tones so the rest would not hear; when the report was finished, the figure developed a twisted grin on his face as he hissed in a language that none in the room could understand, "It ssseems that the sssecond prophecy hasss already been ssset into motion."

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15-year-old Daniel Fenton was bored.

There was really no better way to put it. School was over for the year (not that he was complaining– he never wanted to go through 9th grade again), ghost activity was at an all time low (in fact, it had been a good two weeks since his last fight), and his parents had taken off for another convention leaving Jazz in charge of the house– and Danny. Said older sibling was currently at the library doing research, and wouldn't be back home until later that evening, or so the neatly printed note sitting on the kitchen table had said. Danny was, of course, hanging out with Sam and Tucker at Sam's house, watching movies.

The one thing that bothered him (other than his boredom) was the fact the ghosts had been so... well, un-bothersome of late. They had been constantly causing mayhem and annoyances ever since the creation of the ghost portal, so why suddenly stop now? Surely he hadn't actually caught them all enough times that they just decided to give up? Not likely; Danny couldn't help but feel apprehensive about the whole situation... or lack thereof.

This, however, didn't keep him from being bored.

He really shouldn't complain. He should just sit back, relax, keep quiet, and try not to think too hard. He was probably stressing over nothing. Lack of ghost interference was a _good_ thing. It suddenly occurred to Danny that perhaps he'd been fighting ghosts so long that he simply didn't know what to do with himself when he wasn't fighting. He inwardly sighed at the thought, wondering if he would ever be normal.

But then, even normal people get bored, don't they?

"I'm bored." Danny stated simply.

Sam glanced at him. "Well, maybe if you watched the movie instead of fidgeting and brooding, you wouldn't be."

Danny blinked. He hadn't realized he was fidgeting. Or that it was so obvious that he was worried about something.

"But we've seen this movie 10 times already," Tucker said, saving Danny from having to reply.

"It's not my fault there haven't been any decent new movies lately." She said a bit defensively, although she didn't really care. She was getting tired of this movie too. You can only watch a movie so many times before it gets old.

Sam stopped the movie and turned to face the other two implying that she was up for suggestions for other things to do. "What do you guys want to do then?"

Tucker just shrugged and pulled out his PDA, and Danny was staring off into space again. Sam just looked disgustedly between the two of them, finally poking Danny who was sitting nearest her.

"Ow!" he protested loudly, rubbing his arm. "What was that for?"

"That was for ignoring me." Sam replied. She eyed her friend for a moment as his face slipped from annoyed to pensive within only a few moments. "What's bothering you? You've been like this for the past few days." She questioned. Danny sighed.

"Haven't you noticed that there hasn't been a lot of ghost activity lately?" He started slowly, gaging their reactions. "Not one single attack for, oh, about two weeks?"

"You're right, I did notice that... but I just chalked it up as being good luck." Sam said.

Tucker was listening now too. "Yeah, not even the Box Ghost has been haunting lately," he said, "You don't think they're up to something, do you?"

"It wouldn't be the first time." Sam replied.

Danny nodded his head in agreement. "I keep trying to tell myself not to worry about it, and to not be paranoid, but it's been way too quiet," he said as he shifted restlessly in his chair, "I just have a bad feeling about it."

Sam and Tucker glanced at each other; they were worried now too.

Danny was pacing now. "And it's worse than if they just attacked– at least then I could be doing something– fighting them! Instead I'm sitting here stressing myself out; hell, that's probably what they want!" he exclaimed, frustrated, as he flung his arms up in the air for emphasis.

"What are we going to do about this?" Tucker thought aloud.

"There's nothing that we really _can _do..." Sam said.

Danny stopped pacing and crossed his arms, facing them. "Maybe we could... go and investigate," He said, "You know, take the Spector Speeder and see if we can find anything suspicious or odd... at least, more odd than usual."

Sam looked skeptical as she said, "I don't know, Danny... it might be more trouble than it's worth. You could be caught by Walker again, or any of the other murderous ghosts that have been after you. And I'm sure that they won't fall for the same trick twice– I wouldn't be surprised if Walker's prison was armed with ghost _and_ real world things to keep the prisoners from escaping. Not to mention the fact that–"

"Alright! Alright, I hear you, and I get it." Danny interrupted her tiredly.

"Aw, relax, Sam," Tucker piped up, "With us there to protect him, Danny's got nothing to worry about!"

Sam simply gave Tucker a look that clearly said, 'you had better be joking'. The really sad part was that she was fairly sure that he wasn't.

Meanwhile, Danny sighed again, realizing that it might indeed not be the smartest thing to jump into the home of all the ghosts he had ever fought. But he couldn't just sit around and do nothing! It'd drive him mad!

"Look, I know it's probably not the best idea, but I just can't stand sitting around and doing nothing. I'm not asking you guys to come, but could you at least hang around the house and let me know when Jazz gets home?" He said, determined.

They both just looked at him for a second before Sam said angrily, "Don't be stupid! Of _course_ we're coming with you!"

"Yeah!" Tucker gave his ever insightful two-cents.

Danny smiled and went ghost, grabbing the two of them and flying them over the his house, wondering all the while how he was lucky enough to get two friends as great as Sam and Tucker.

Once there, they headed down to the basement, and prepared the Spector Speeder for their trip. After arguing for a while over what they should bring and what they shouldn't (they eventually settled on just the Spector Speeder itself, being a real world item in and of itself, and also equipped with ghost shields, weapons, and communicators. It was really all they needed; anything additional would be frivolous. They weren't hunting ghosts, after all, just... investigating them. Ah, but back to the plot), they made their way cautiously but determinedly through the ghost portal.

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Danny was in ghost form, floating leisurely around with Sam and Tucker trailing along behind him in the Spector Speeder. Around him swirled a seemingly endless void of green and inky black, brimming with random objects and a plethora of doors, of all shapes and sizes, and even colors, though they maintained an emerald glow. And, though this was slightly more amusing than watching a movie for the tenth time, he found the beginning of boredom settling in once again.

After who-knew-how-many hours of aimlessly wandering around, arbitrarily opening doors and then immediately slamming them shut, Danny began to see just how half-baked his plan was. The ghost zone was, unarguably, _huge_, and he hadn't really had any idea of where to even start looking; any place that might have information (such as the ghost zone prison, or one of the other 'homes' of his enemies) were too dangerous to bother with.

And so he still hadn't found anything that even hinted at why all the ghosts have been so quiet lately. Even the ghost zone itself seemed empty, the lack of spectral activity leaving an eerie silence. As if the place wasn't creepy enough already, Danny thought.

Suddenly, his headset crackled to life, and Tucker's voice came through the speakers. "Well, even if we don't find any ghosts having secret meetings while they plot the end of the world, at least we'll have a better map for next time," He said as he monitored his PDA and the instruments on the Speeder. (They had decided to try and make a map of the ghost zone while they were there, to prevent from getting (too) lost, and so they'd have a resource for further explorations.)

Danny saw Sam shake her head through the windshield as she said, "I don't think we're going to find anything, Danny. Maybe we should head back."

"Yeah, it's getting pretty late, too. Jazz will be home soon, since the library closes at seven." Tucker added.

Danny blinked. He had been about to agree with Sam, but instead he said, "It can't be _that_ late, Tuck; we haven't been in here long enough for Jazz to be home already."

Sam nodded her agreement with Danny, and said, "We started this little adventure at around noon, and we've only been in here for a couple of hours– three, at the most. What time is it?"

Tucker held his hands up defensively, saying, "Hey, I'm just telling you what I see– the clock on my watch, and incidentally, my PDA and the Speeder, is 6:30."

"What?!" Both Danny and Sam exclaimed.

"Six hours?" Danny said incredulously, "It sure didn't _feel_ like that long..."

Tucker gave protest as Sam yanked his wrist towards her to look at his watch. A glare from the goth silenced him.

"Well, no wonder your watch is fast!" Sam said with exasperation, "It looks like it's running on double time." She then pointed at the second hand on his watch; it was moving abnormally fast, completing it's usual 60 second route in about 25 seconds.

"That still doesn't explain my PDA and the Speeder's clock." He replied perplexedly.

"Do you think it's because we're in the ghost zone?" Sam speculated.

Danny sighed. "Anything is possible, I think. Although, I can't remember our watches ever going fast before while we were in here."

"Well, we've never really been in here at a time when we weren't occupied trying to fight or escape," Sam pointed out, "Maybe we just never noticed."

"Could be," the halfa replied thoughtfully, "Either way, I think you're right about not finding anything... let me just check one more door, and then we'll head back."

After a quick glance around, Danny swooshed over to a door that caught his eye; it seemed bigger than a many of the others he had seen, and rather than the usual nondescript lumber, this one seemed to be made of stone. It was intricately carved with strange symbols, and the word 'runes' came to Danny's mind, though he had no idea why he thought that.

Despite the ominous feel that it emitted, the door had no locks, or 'keep away' signs– just a large, vertical bar handle that fit comfortably under Danny's hands as he grasped it. Steeling himself, he gave a hearty pull.

Danny gasped as several things happened at once. Firstly, the door did not move a bit. Secondly, he felt a tingling sensation all over his entire body, as if he were being inspected by an invisible force. Lastly, the door now had several locks down the front that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

He immediately released the handle and zoomed back several yards, nearly ramming into the RV as he did so.

"Whoa, Danny, are you okay? What happened?" Sam asked concernedly.

Danny, who was still in a bit of shock, just said, "B-but, didn't you _see_ that!? A second ago, that door didn't have a thing on it, and now it's got, like, a million locks!"

Both Sam and Tucker were giving him strange looks, and finally Sam said, "The door looks the same to me, Danny..."

"I don't see any locks, dude." Tucker added, sounding worried for Danny's sanity.

Danny just looked at them. And then at the door, and then back to them again. Forcing himself to relax a bit, Danny floated cautiously back over to the door. "Maybe only ghosts can see them, or something," he said, though he didn't sound too sure of himself.

Tucker and Sam latched onto the idea, neither of them wanting to think that perhaps their friend had lost a few of his ghostly marbles.

"That could definitely be it," Tucker quickly agreed.

"And I bet there was lots of other things that you saw and we didn't, but they were never pointed out so we didn't notice," Sam added reassuringly.

Now back in front of the door and feeling better knowing that his friends didn't think he was crazy, Danny took a closer look at the locks on the door.

He was surprised to find that all of them could be easily undone. None of them required a key, or a combination. They were all just a matter of sliding-this-to-the-left, or turning-this-knob-to-the-right. In a few moments, Danny had them all unlocked.

While he was doing this, Tucker and Sam watched him. Of course, to them it just looked like he was a mime pretending to undo locks and bolts, but they just glanced at each other and didn't say anything.

Warily, Danny grabbed the handle again, took a deep breath, and pulled.

There was a great gust of stale air that blew out as the door swung heavily open. Through his headset, he could hear a gasp from Sam and an "Oh man..." from Tucker as they saw what was inside.

It was possibly the most gruesome thing Danny had ever seen in the ghost zone... or in his life in general.

The room was rather large– about the size of a small sports stadium. The walls and floor were a plain, gray stone; most of the space was taken up by stadium style benches that resembled large steps that started where Danny stood in the door way and ended down on what would be the ground level. They were continuous and wrapped all the way around the large, oval space.

At the center of the room, on a slightly raised dias in the ground level, facing him, was an oddly inauspicious stone archway. A frail and tattered black veil hung from the structure, fluttering lazily and forbiddingly as if a soft breeze was blowing, even though the air in the room was deathly still.

That was not what made Danny slightly nauseous, however. Nor was it what made him feel weak, and caused him to lean against the cold, stone doorjamb for support. No, it was the carpeting of human corpses that littered the steps and floor of the room. There must have been hundreds of dead bodies, all in varying but late stages of decay. Most of them were yellowing skeletons, their bones lain out, morbidly piled one upon the other, nonexistent eyes staring out of lifeless sockets. Some, however, still had bits of rotting tissue and flesh hanging of the bones, filling the room with a stale, tainted stench.

After only a few seconds of looking, Danny, clenching his jaw and swallowing, turned away and closed his eyes, trying to get himself under control. He felt sick... really sick. Of all the ghosts they had fought, however evil and sinister the plans had been, there had never been any real damage done. Nobody had ever died, or even gotten seriously injured. Everything had always worked out in the end. These people, however, whoever they were, did not get the happy ending that Danny realized he'd always taken for granted.

Sam sounded sick as she said, "W-what do you think could have done this?"

Danny had an overwhelming urge to say, _'It was the veil... the veil did it... It's all the veil's fault...' _But instead he just shook his head and said simply, "I don't think I want to know." He was about to float up and shut the door, when he heard a sharp canine bark from inside the room.

Whipping his head around and taking a defensive stance, Danny saw a large, almost bear-like dog sitting on an unoccupied patch of stone a few meters away from him. It had a happy grin on it's face and it's tail was wagging enthusiastically.

For an instant, Danny entertained the thought that it had been the dog that had cause all the carnage in front of him, but somehow he knew that wasn't the case. Either way...

"Oh no," He said, shaking his head. "I've had enough of ghost dogs to last me the rest of my life," He continued, hoping the dog would take the hint and go away.

The dog barked again and then whined, it's tail wagging furiously. Danny tensed as it took a few tentative steps toward him, but then it just sat down again and stared at him with big, blue, puppy-dog eyes.

Danny rolled his eyes and floated carefully over to the dog, reaching out cautiously to scratch the dog behind it's ears. It panted happily in response, licking his palm and looking up at him pleadingly. Suddenly, Danny noticed something that he hadn't before.

Meanwhile, Sam and Tucker were watching, too sickened to be curious about the dog, when Danny exclaimed, "Sam, Tucker, I don't think this dog is _dead_!"

"Huh? What are you talking about, Danny, all ghosts are dead." Tucker said, confused.

"But that's just what I'm saying," Danny said, his eyes wide, "I don't think this is a ghost at all."

Sam gasped as she said, "You're right! Look, it doesn't have that green glow that all the ghosts always have,"

"He's warm, too," Danny added. "And I can feel a pulse."

The dog, seemingly happy that his three new humans weren't totally stupid, gave a bark of joy and sat patiently waiting for the next move to be made.

"So... what do we do now?" Tucker asked.

"Well, we take it with us, of course!" Sam said passionately, "We can't just leave the poor defenseless creature here to fend for itself!"

Danny would have smiled if he weren't standing in a pile of someone's bones. He turned back to the dog and said, "Well, I suppose you'd like to come with us then?"

The dog gave an affirmative bark and appeared to nod it's head. Danny blinked at that but ignored it for now. He grabbed the dog around the middle and flew it out to the Spector Speeder. Sam had already opened the door on her side, and when he handed the dog to her, she took it eagerly and it settled happily across her lap. As she petted it, she cooed on about how it what a 'handsome' and 'intelligent' dog it was. Both Danny and Tucker rolled their eyes.

Floating back over to the door, Danny took one last glance at the fluttering veil before swinging the door shut again. He breathed a sigh of relief, and turned away to head back home with Sam, Tucker, and their new canine companion.

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The dark-hooded figure stood in front of a mansion in Wisconsin. He smirked as he easily called upon a dark power and blasted the front doors open, before continuing into the richly furnished home. Stepping through the ruins, he made his way into the lower levels of the house, finally reaching an odd metal place, filled with all sorts of contraptions and liquids, which reminded him vaguely of a potions lab. In the middle of the room hovered an irate ghost. Red eyes like his own looked ready to rip his head off, or something to that affect, while his mouth was twisted into a snarl.

Before a threat could be uttered, or a blow thrown, however, the robed figure spoke, his snake-like voice cutting through the air and obviously catching the angered ghost's attention.

"I have a proposssal for you, Plasssmiusssss..."

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A/N: Please review– I'd love to hear what you think!

'Til chapter 2!

;-;Adrian Winter;-;


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: There are actually two sides to this story– this version is from Danny's perspective. I plan to post another, parallel story from... well, you'll-see-who's perspective, later on. That way, depending on which fandom you prefer, you get to read this from whichever perspective you like! Naturally there'll be some details in one that won't be in the other and visa-versa, but that's sort of the idea. :D

Enjoy!

**Edit July 1, 2007: **I fixed the RV– Spector Speeder thing in the last chapter, plus edited this one. Nothing major, though, so don't worry.

**Edit November 12, 2007:** Fixed up some more stuff.

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**Of Ghosts and Wizards**

CHAPTER 2

Vlad Plasmius floated angrily in the middle of his lab, suddenly confronted by a disturbingly confident figure that had just blasted through the reinforced metal that housed his secret underground lab. The horrifically pale and almost disfigured being before him screamed of ghost, and yet he could not be– Plasmius did not sense him, and he did not seem to possess any power– at least not the ghostly kind.

"I have a proposssal for you, Plasssmiusssss..." The being spoke, sounding very much like a snake with a hissing voice that dripped with venom.

Vlad narrowed his eyes, enraged at this being that had the audacity to burst into his lab, and thoroughly deliver chaos upon it. "And who, may I ask, are you?"

"My name is Voldemort. Many know me asss The Dark Lord, and it will be asss such that you addresssss me. I believe there is some information that you possesssss that may be useful to me, and I would be _thrilled_ to have your assissstance in an upcoming sssituation..."

The seething halfa sneered and scoffed. "And why would I _assist_ you with anything?" He demanded haughtily.

Red eyes gleamed with a sort of perverted happiness as the robed figure said nothing. He instead produced a strangely polished, white-wooded stick that reflected the ghastly green light from the open ghost zone portal behind him. Vlad tensed with confusion as Voldemort raised the stick and pointed it at him in what may have been considered a threatening gesture.

And suddenly, it became very, _very_ clear why.

"_Phasmatis Crucio!_"

Within moments the powerful halfa was writhing on the ground in agony, screaming mindlessly through the pain, every nerve being attacked ceaselessly, before he finally fell into the blissful depths of unconsciousness.

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Back in the ghost zone, Danny and company were making their way back home. Since their course had basically been a big circle, it didn't take them long to be back to the ghost portal. And though it had only taken them about ten minutes, all the watches told them otherwise– that it had been an approximate 25 minute trip.

Having arrived home without incident, Danny breathed a small sigh of relief as he un-ghost-ified himself and Sam and Tucker parked and exited the Specter Speeder. The dog, which had hopped out of the Spector Speeder along with Sam and Tucker, tilted its head with puzzlement as it watched Danny transform. Danny just looked back, feeling slightly uneasy by the dog's piercing stare; after a moment, he turned away.

As the three of them (plus dog) walked up the stairs out of the lab, Sam thought out loud, "So... what do we do now?"

"The first thing I'm going to do is fix my watc--" Tucker's eyebrows furled as he paused mid-step and said, "That's really weird... the second hand is back to normal, but the time is still way off."

By now they were at the top of the stairs, and as Danny glanced into the kitchen, he did a double take when he saw the clock on the wall. He blinked, then silently but quickly walked into the living room with Sam and Tucker trailing confusedly behind him.

"Danny?" Sam prompted.

"All the clocks are fast!" He said in a slightly hysterical voice, "About five till six, right Tuck?"

Grabbing Tucker's arm and checking his watch, eyes wide and eyebrows high with disbelieve, Sam replied, "Yeah, you're right, but... how can that be?"

"And I'll bet the clocks at school and anywhere else will say the same thing!" Tucker added. They were in the living room now, and Danny had started to pace in the middle of the room.

"What does this mean?" Sam wondered as she sat down on the couch to watch Danny pace.

"Who knows what it means!" Danny threw his hands up in the air dramatically, and flopped down into an unoccupied chair, obviously nursing a fried brain.

"It means... that time moves slower in the ghost zone that then it does in the normal world," Tucker hesitantly theorized. "I mean, think about it. Our clocks and watches were designed here, in the normal world, so they tell the time of the normal world. It would make sense then that, even in the ghost zone, they would continue telling us the time from here. Which would explain, if what I think is true, why the clocks were running fast while we were in the ghost zone, but are fine now." Tucker was now settled on the couch next to Sam, looking thoughtful.

Danny was still having trouble grasping the situation. "So you're saying that while we were in there for only about three hours, at the most, _seven _hours passed out here?"

Tucker shrugged, "It would seem that way."

Now Danny sat thoughtfully in his chair. He didn't know quite what to think or say about the whole thing. Had it always been that way, and they just never noticed? Or was this a recent abnormal development that was the clue they'd been looking for all along? And then there was always that door, with the locks neither Sam and Tucker could see, and what lay inside...

That haunting veil, swaying silently in the stale air, with it's halo of corpses. And then there was always–

Danny was startled from his thoughts by a sharp bark. He groaned. "I almost forgot about you," he told the large black canine. "Should we take him to the pound?" He asked Sam and Tucker.

The dog protested with a wine, as if he knew what they were talking about.

"Aw, but Danny, look at how cute he is," Sam pleaded. "I think we should keep him." She said with finality.

"Where!? None of our parents will allow pets!" Danny countered.

"But we can't take him to the pound! That'd be almost as bad as leaving him in the ghost zone! And besides, my parents aren't home often enough to notice anyway."

"It's expensive to have a pet, and it takes a lot of time that we usually don't have."

"Well, in case you hadn't noticed, I've got money to spare and it's summer– we'll have plenty of time to train him!"

Danny gave a growl of frustration, but relented nonetheless. "Fine, whatever. It's not like I have any right to tell what to do," he grumbled the second sentence, "But I just _know_ that it's going to be more trouble than it's worth." he added as a last testament to what he thought of her keeping the dog. And, even though at this point he was just being stubborn, the statement rang with a strange sense of truth that left Danny feeling uneasy as he said it.

The dog, whose head had swivelled back and forth between them during their small argument, gave a bark of approval and proceeded to pant and wag its tail happily.

Sam squealed and hugged the dog as she said, "See, he's happy! What should we name him?" Sam asked, looking thoughtful and content.

"_You_ can name him whatever you want." Danny said. But suddenly, he felt a whispering in his mind.

_Sirius._

He stiffened. What was that? Where did that name come from? Why did it feel so... familiar somehow, as if he had met the person?

_Sirius._

His eyes drifted back toward the dog, and as their eyes met, he heard the name again, louder, echoing throughout his mind with startling clarity, in a voice he did not know. His mind felt cloudy as if there was someone else's thoughts overlapped with his own, and all he could see where the icy blue eyes of the mysterious dog.

_Sirius!_

"Sirius!" Danny blurted out loud.

"What?" Sam asked, turning towards Danny, slightly startled by his sudden enthusiasm.

"Uh..." Suddenly Danny was back to normal, the return making a rushing sound in his ears, and the cobwebs on his mind quickly receded. He mentally flailed for a moment before regaining his bearings. "His... name! His name should be Sirius." he said, hoping Sam wouldn't notice him going crazy. For there was no other explanation, really, was there? He was hearing voices for goodness's sake!

If Sam noticed his inner turmoil, she made no move to mention it as she faced the dog once again and said, "As in the constellation? Hmmm... I like it. What do you think, boy? You like the name Sirius?"

The dog had continued staring intensely at Danny, sitting stock still, but at the mention of his new name, it gave an indulging-ly happy bark and started wagging its tail once more.

Tucker, who had resulted to playing a game on his PDA during the whole exchange, suddenly said, "Hey... isn't Jazz supposed to be home soon?"

As if summoned by the sounding of her name, the front door swung open, revealing Jazz, book bag and all.

When she saw the fury new addition to the group, she simply quirked an eyebrow and said, "I hadn't realized we'd gotten a dog."

Danny pointed an accusing finger at Sam as he said, "_She's_ the one that wanted to keep it. And it'll be staying at _her_ house."

Sam glared at Danny but stayed quiet. Jazz just shrugged her shoulders and said, "Just make sure it doesn't make a mess in the house, and if it does, clean up after it. Other than that, I don't care what you guys do with it."

With that, she headed up the stairs and disappeared, presumably into her room to do more studying.

In an attempt to steer the impending argument between his two friends in a calmer direction, Tucker observed, "Jazz seems to have mellowed out a bit, hasn't she?"

Danny and Sam, who had been about to start another yelling match, paused, looked at Tucker, and then up the stairs where Jazz had just gone. Danny shrugged and Sam wondered out loud, "I wonder why that is?"

Tucker shrugged and went back to his game, his mission accomplished.

Danny, who had stood up when Jazz had gotten home, plopped back down into his chair. Now that he thought about it, she had been a lot nicer the past few months. Maybe she had just gotten tired of nagging him all the time. But it was more than that, too. She somehow seemed more understanding when his grades faltered, or he got home at odd hours of the night after taking care of a couple stray ghosts. Not that she knew that. Or if she did, she was very good at keeping a secret. Danny almost laughed at that. If Jazz really knew what he'd been doing, Danny felt sure she wouldn't be so understanding.

Instead of saying any of this aloud, Danny simply shrugged and said, "Well, for whatever reason, let's just consider ourselves lucky." Then he sighed and continued, "I just wish we had had more luck today in the ghost zone.

"Maybe you just need to let it go and relax, Danny." Sam said soothingly. With a warm hand on his shoulder, she continued, "Maybe you're just being given a break."

Danny couldn't help the feeling that Sam was terribly, horribly wrong.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

After an couple hours of half-heartedly watching TV, the three of them went up to Danny's room to call it a night. Since the three of them spent so much time together, they had extra clothes and sleeping bags at all of their houses, and they knew that their parents would assume they were together at one of them if they didn't come home. Before long, both Sam and Tucker were completely asleep.

Danny, however, felt restless and unsettled, no matter how much he tried to put it out of his mind. Something was going to happen. Maybe not anytime soon, but it would, and he hated the fact that no matter what he did, he wouldn't be ready for it.

He found himself staring at Sirius, who had curled up between Sam and Tucker on the floor and wasn't asleep either. It was, in fact, staring intently back at Danny. As soon as Danny had started looking at it, the dog had opened his mouth in a canine grin and panted contentedly. But the happy facade could not hide the distinctly human look in those cool blue eyes. The dog was _waiting_ for something. For him to fall asleep, maybe? Was the dog planning on doing something that it didn't want them to know about?

Danny rolled his eyes and gave a disgusted sigh at himself as he rolled over, his back now to Sirius. "You're being ridiculous," he mumbled to himself, "Get it together, Fenton, Sirius is just a dog."

But why on Earth had it been in the ghost zone of all places? And why was it so friendly? Surely it must have gone through something traumatic to have gotten in there, so why was it so keen on people? It seemed almost _too_ dog-like, as if it were not really a dog, but just _acting_ like one...

Danny closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and forcefully cleared his mind. It took a while, but he finally fell into a light, restless sleep.

Unbeknownst to him, Sirius, seeing that Danny was, indeed, asleep, took his leave of the room and trotted lightly downstairs without a sound. It made its way to the basement stairs and to the lab door, which it managed to open with a very un-dog-like skill. It found a sort of cubby hole made by a bookcase and some boxes furthest from the door, which would hide him easily from sight if someone were to stand in the doorway. It glanced almost nervously around a few more times before heaving a great sight and... transforming.

Swiftly and soundlessly, the body stretched and grew, limbs lengthening, and spine straightening. There now stood a thin figure, dressed in strange robe-like garments, face gaunt and framed by wild, black, curly hair. The eyes were the same though, ice blue and full of dark memories.

Sirius stretched and flexed his now human body, and began searching through his robes, looking for two specific items. A grin of success lit up his face as he found that which he sought; an interestingly crafted piece of wood, slender and polished, and a curiously small, square mirror. He gave the mirror a light tap with the wooden stick, and it suddenly grew to a more acceptable size, so that he could comfortably see his whole face when he held it slightly out before him.

Stuffing his magical stick back into his robes, he sat down with a huff, mirror in hand. He squared his shoulders and gave one last glance in the direction of the door as he took a small breath and quietly but firmly intoned, "Harry."

The mirror reacted immediately. The once smooth surface flexed and rippled, and light poured out from it and swirled from within it's depths. It reflected off of Sirius's face which was peering intently into the mirror. Eventually the light died slightly, glowing only enough for Sirius to clearly see the image on the other side.

Or at least it would have, if there was anything to look at. Sirius huffed impatiently and tried to interpret what he was seeing. A blank, off-white space of nothingness stared back at him, gray with darkness. A wall, perhaps? Or more likely, a ceiling; the other mirror was probably sitting on a dresser or desk. The mirror on the other side would be glowing, so if Harry was awake wherever it was, he should see it...

But if he thought about it, it would probably still be dark in England, some time in the inhumanly early morning, but that all depended on what time zone he himself was in.

Sirius shook his head at his own silliness. Did it really _matter_ what time zone he was in? No, it didn't.

"Harry," Sirius said quietly, hoping to get his godson's attention without waking up his adoptive "owners" upstairs.

"Harry," He said a bit louder, as he tentatively tapped on the glass of the mirror, "Harry, wake up, it's me, Sirius."

He sat for a moment, continuing to stare at the assumed ceiling. After a moment, he heard a soft rustling sound, like bed sheets maybe, or a blanket. He then heard a quiet hitching of breath.

"Harry! Pick up the mirror already, would you?" Sirius prompted, still staring at nothing.

After a few more long and drawn out moments, the view in the mirror changed. The ceiling view fell back slowly and hesitantly, as though held by shaking hands. He caught the top of a messy, black haired covered head, and then a familiar lightning bolt-shaped scar. Then the top rim of glasses, and finally shockingly green eyes that were haunted in a way that he never hoped top see them. Eventually he could see Harry's entire face, and he gave a warm grin.

"S...S-Sirius...?" Harry managed to choke out. His face was twisted with so many emotions, Sirius was sure it would break with the amount of strain it was under. Eventually it settled on a sort of hopeful panic, and Harry broke out into a hysterical string of questioning, "Where are you? Are you hurt? What happened? Why haven't you called sooner? I thought you– but I've been having these– _Where are you?!_"

"Whoa, hold on there for a second, I'm okay," Sirius gave a small chuckle, and was about to continue when Harry interrupted him.

"How can you laugh! Where have you _been_ for the last month and a half... everyone thought you were dead, I... I thought..." Tears shone in the moonlight in Harry's eyes, illuminating the pain and hope within them, but the tears did not fall

Sirius's grin left his face, and he sobered quickly, although feeling puzzled. "I'm sorry that I worried you Harry, but I'm fine. And did you say a month and a half?"

"Y-yeah. Why do you ask." Harry said thickly, obviously trying to stay collected.

"Well, to me it feels like it's only been a few days since I fell through the veil," Harry flinched when he said this, but he continued, "Although those muggle kids did say something about time flowing differently..."

Harry suddenly seemed slightly more alert. "Muggle kids?"

"Yeah, the ones that found me in the place behind the veil," Sirius replied, "Three of them, probably about fourteen or fifteen. Two boys and a girl. There's some really strange things about the one named Danny, though. The kid transformed from a ghost to a human. Never heard anything like it in my entire life... and somehow, he knew my name."

"Sirius, this Danny, he wouldn't happen to have messy black hair, blue eyes, and have white hair and green eyes when he was transformed, would he?" Harry said anxiously, with a concentrated look on his face.

"Well, yeah, but--"

"And the girl, Sam, in gothic clothing and the dark skinned boy, Tucker, all with American accents–"

"Harry, how do you know these things?" Sirius asked, starting to get worried.

Harry's face set into an expression of pure determination as he said, "I know where you are. I'm coming to get you."

"Harry, wait–" Sirius said, completely flabbergasted, both because of what Harry had said, but also because the connection had gone still and dark. He sighed softly, cursing himself for being so thick-headed. He had just called to make sure Harry was okay, and now Harry was on his way to... well Sirius didn't even know where! Somewhere in the States, apparently. Sirius just prayed to Merlin that Harry contacted someone from the Order or even Dumbledore himself instead of just charging into the situation like a... well, like a Gryffindor.

And how in all of the wizarding world did Harry know the things he did? And know where he was when _he_ didn't even know where he was?!

Sirius mentally thwacked himself once again before stowing the mirror and turning back into a dog and heading back upstairs. It wouldn't do him any good to be gone when the kids woke up. He knew that Danny was already suspicious of him.

Tomorrow, he would somehow get away from the teens, find a wizard's house with a working floo, and contact Dumbledore all without anyone noticing and simultaneously keeping himself from being detected as a wizard _or_ an animagus.

Oh yeah. Tomorrow was going to be _fun_.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

The foreboding, dark robed figure was back on his throne, hissing orders and glaring through crimson eyes. His minions slunk to and fro, carrying out his commands and whims. He gave a feral grin, knowledge and power making him sadistically giddy. Everything was falling into place. It was ironic, really, that he should have spent his entire, suffering existence fighting the one being that only he could kill, but that he seemed not able to. And now he knew why– soon, he would know the one thing, the one and only person that _truly_ stood in way– and once he did, there would be nothing left of them. A simple murder, and the world would be his.

;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;

A/N: Ha ha, has it been forever since I've posted, or what? gets pelted with rotten fruit Ok, so I'm lousy at updating. Unfortunately, most fanfic writers are. I've suffered the same pain you've been feeling, so don't think I don't understand. You just have to know that I can't write properly unless I'm in the mood, and that doesn't happen very often.

Any way, reviews are sorely appreciated, because I love to hear what people think!

Till next time!

;-;Adrian Winter;-;


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Here's another chapter for y'all. Enjoy!

**Edit July 1, 2007:** Went through and edited for grammar and spelling one more time. Also, flushed out the conversation a little bit, but again, nothing major.

**Edit November 12, 2007: **Just more little things fixed up.

;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;

**Of Ghosts and Wizards**

CHAPTER 3

The morning after their unsuccessful trip into the ghost zone, Danny, Sam, and Tucker woke up uneventfully and feeling fairly well rested. Sunlight streamed in through the gaps in the curtains in Danny's room as the three of them rubbed the sleep from their eyes and went about the usual morning business of teeth brushing and clothes changing and other such things. Sirius watched lazily from his position on the floor, and only made to move once the three of them were on their way downstairs for breakfast.

A tidily scrawled note awaited them upon their entry to the kitchen. Apparently, Jazz was out tutoring one of her many pupils, but would be back around noon. Seeing as how the three of them hadn't woken up till ten, it wouldn't be too long before she returned. Plus, Jack and Maddie were going to be home from their convention around then too.

Putting the note aside, Danny sat down and distractedly poured himself a bowl of cereal and milk, to which Sam and Tucker followed suit. He still hadn't been able to shake the foreboding feeling from the day and night before– in fact, it had grown, and he could barely sit still with the amount of anxiety he was feeling. Every little noise made his muscles clench in preparation for conflict, but there was no conflict to be had. Surely it wasn't okay to be this paranoid?

"Danny... are you feeling okay?" Sam asked with concern showing plainly on her face. She had finished her cereal and was searching for something acceptable to feed Sirius, but was paying more attention to Danny than to her task.

"Yeah, man. You seem really tense. You've barely said five words to us the whole morning. I mean, I know you're not a morning person, but this is kind of extreme, don't you think?" Tucker added as he continued to shovel cereal into his mouth.

Danny just shook his head. "I just can't shake this feeling that something is going to happen. Soon. And I know I should let it go," he said, looking at Sam before she could say anything, "I really do. But I just... I don't know." He slumped his shoulders in defeat and sat back rubbing the back of his neck. "I feel so anxious, like there's a hundred ghosts in the room, but there's nothing here."

Sam and Tucker exchanged worried glances. They hated seeing their friend so miserable, but what could they do to help? Nothing like this had ever happened before– sure, being over worked or stressed was one thing, but it was in the middle of the summer, with no conflict for weeks now. What was there possibly to worry about?

"We should, I dunno, go to the mall or something," Sam said, obviously trying to think of something to distract Danny from his non-existent problems.

"Yeah," Tucker chimed in, "We can check out that new Super Armadillo Space Invader Extravaganza game at the Arcade!" Sam rolled her eyes, but did not protest.

Danny gave a soft smile at his friends obvious efforts to distract him. "Yeah, that sounds good you guys." They were right. He needed to relax, no matter what his instincts told him. Suddenly, he realized something.

He looked toward Sirius as he said, "What about–"

Danny's half-hearted inquiry was cut short by an knock at the front door. He looked at the other two in puzzlement.

"It's your house, Danny," Tucker said, "We don't have any more of an idea than you do."

Danny just shrugged and went to answer the door. The sight that greeted him was a teenage boy about Jazz's age, maybe younger, with unruly black hair and startlingly green eyes. He was wearing extremely baggy clothes that might have even been pajamas, and the expression on his face was uncertain and anxious; he was practically shaking with nervous energy, and seemed mildly winded.

"Uh... can I... help you?" Danny broached after a moment of silence, not bothering to disguise his confusion.

"Er, I...yes, actually..." The stranger faltered and appeared as if he really didn't know what to say. Danny noticed that he had a British accent. A lost tourist on vacation, maybe?

Sam, Tucker, and Sirius had come to hover behind Danny, curious about their strange guest. Sirius seemed to get excited upon seeing the visitor, and gave a pitiful whine and then a loud bark.

_Well,_ Sirius thought, _at least I won't have to find a working floo and all that..._

"Sirius!" The stranger gasped, and looked like he was about to either burst into tears or hysterical laughter. Or both.

"Is this your dog?" Sam asked, surprised.

"Why don't you come inside," Danny offered as he stood aside. He was suspicious of this kid, but he also didn't want to be broadcasting this odd state of affairs to any one who might be listening.

"Thanks," The stranger said distractedly as he stepped inside.

Danny closed the door and watched as the teen rushed over to the happy dog, then halted, seeming to change his mind about something. He seemed to struggle for a moment, before his face hardened and he said, "Turn back to normal."

The three of them watched, perplexed, as Sirius just glanced at them and whined. Harry gave them a side-long glance as well, and then said, "I don't care. I need to know for sure. I just... we can obliviate them later, just– please, Sirius..." He let a small amount of pleading into his expression, "Padfoot, I have to know that it's not a trick..." His voice cracked and he closed his eyes, swallowing thickly

_Okay_, Danny thought, _now I'm really confused._ How did this guy know the name they had given the dog? Why was his dog in the ghost zone in the first place? Who was he, and What the hell did 'obliviate' mean?

"Would you mind, you know, telling us who you are and everything?" Danny prodded unashamedly. He glanced at Sam and Tucker and they just looked back at him, their expression clearly saying, 'don't ask us'.

He was ignored as the dog seemed to sigh. Then it just shook its head and–

What happened next made Danny jump back with surprise, practically knocking Sam and Tucker over. Where once their had been a dog, a tall man with wild black curls and the same icy blue eyes stood instead. The three of them just gaped, obviously at a loss for words at the current situation.

"Hey there, prongslet." The-once-dog man said.

The stranger, presumably Harry, launched himself into the man's arms, clutching at him tightly and sobbing loudly into his strange, draping garments. The man just held him, saying things like, "It's alright, Harry, I'm okay," and looking almost surprised at the reaction.

Harry was saying something too, but it was muffled in the man's clothing and the three of them couldn't make it out.

By this time, Danny had regained himself, and was feeling more than a bit indignant at being ignored, plus more than a little unsettled. Sure, he saw strange stuff all the time, and but this was out of even _his_ expertise with the supernatural.

"Would one of you _please_ tell me who you are and what's going on?!" He asked angrily. And, almost as an afterthought he mumbled indignantly, "I _knew_ there was something weird about that dog..."

The two of them separated and turned to them, looking as if they had forgotten where they were.

"Right," Sirius said in an overly cheerful voice, "Sorry to do this, but can't have you running around telling people you saw a dog transform into a man, so..." As he said this, he pulled a strange wooden stick from out of his ragged, draping garments, and pointed it at the three of them.

Alarm signs went off in Danny's head as he stared down the length of the man's odd wooden stick. It might just be a stick, but looks can be deceiving, and he didn't want to take any chances; he had no idea why this man was pointing a stick at him, but he had a feeling that it wasn't a gesture of friendship. Making a split second decision, he went ghost despite the fact that two more people would know his secret– if they were enemies, then it didn't really matter did it?

He managed to grab Sam and Tucker and go intangible just in time for a strange ball of light to pass through each of them. He tensed as it passed harmlessly through them, leaving no adverse affects other than a strange tingling sensation in its wake. Sam and Tucker were looking nervous, and Tucker was about ready to say something but Danny silenced him with a shake of the head. He floated them soundlessly over the strangers until they were hovering a good distance on the other side of the strange intruders, waiting for them to make the next move. He didn't want to attack them, but he would do anything to protect his friends.

As soon as the three of them had disappeared, Sirius had cursed and said, "I guess I should have known he could do that–"

Harry was just looking at Sirius with a mixture of happiness and exasperation. "Sirius, hold on a second, I don't think we need to do that..." He said and he clumsily wiped the tears from his face. "I think we can trust them with this."

Danny and his friends were now listening intently. "Well, it's nice that you're so trusting, Harry," Sirius said skeptically, "But we don't know these muggles at all, not to mention–"

Harry shook his head and cut him off, saying, "They obviously have secrets of their own. Besides, I've been having... well, having dreams about them. Specifically that Danny kid."

Danny and his friends exchanged glances as Sirius's expression became infinitely more serious as he said, "Could they have been sent by Voldemort?"

"Well, I thought at first that it was a trick, but they were different, and then you called on the mirror..." He trailed off, getting lost in his thoughts before shaking his head and continuing, "I'll tell you more later."

Harry searched aimlessly around the seemingly empty room and called out, "Sorry about that Danny, er, Mr. Fenton, but if you wouldn't mind we'd like to explain ourselves,"

Danny laughed in his head at the fact that Harry was talking in the completely opposite direction from where they actually were. He floated he and his friends to the floor and reappeared.

Why not give them one more chance?

"I'm going to give you ten seconds to give me one good reason why I shouldn't blast you both out of my house and call the cops. Oh, and Danny's fine, by the way." He said with his arms crossed.

He didn't say he was going to be nice about it.

The two of them both swivelled around; Sirius leaned over towards Harry without looking away from Danny and murmured, "What are 'cops'?" obviously trying but failing to be discreet.

Harry answered, "Muggle Aurors. And put your wand away!" he added chastising-ly. Sirius just sighed and tucked it back into his... robe... things.

"Wand?" Sam seemed mildly excited, "As in, magic wand?"

"Er, yeah. The both of us are wizards." Harry said.

"This is obviously going to take a while," Danny said, relaxing now that Sirius had put his... 'wand', away, but still perplexed by the whole thing. "Let's go sit down in the living room and properly introduce ourselves."

They all headed semi-cautiously into the living room. Danny, Sam, and Tucker sat down on the longest couch, while Harry and Sirius sat on the smaller one to the side of them. Danny had transformed as he sat down, now sporting his usual black hair and blue eyes.

"First of all, who are you? Full names, if you wouldn't mind." Danny said. He knew he wasn't being exactly friendly, but he wanted to maintain control of the situation until he knew more about these people.

"I'm Harry Potter," The boy with the green eyes answered, "And this is my Godfather, Sirius Black. We're both wizards from England."

"Wizards? _Seriously_?" Tucker said flabbergasted. "This is way too weird..."

Danny let out a breath and said, "I'll admit, this is really bizarre, but if you think about it, it's not really that hard to go from ghosts to magic to wizards, I guess..."

"How was it that you were able to turn into a dog?" Sam directed curiously at Sirius. Unlike Tucker, Same was more excited and curious as opposed to shocked.

"Some wizards are able to turn into animals, which usually represent something about their personalities," Sirius answered amiably. He had apparently decided to go along with things for now. "A wizard with an animal form is called an animagus."

"Dude... that's so cool! Are you an animagus too, Harry?" Tucker asked in awe, starting to be less freaked and more curious.

Harry shook his head. "I actually don't know, because I haven't gone through the training or tried the spell yet. I've been kind of... busy."

Recognizing the conversation getting a little off track, Danny asked, "Why are you here? Or rather, why were _you_," he gestured at Sirius, "In the ghost zone?"

Harry and Sirius glanced at each other hopelessly, not having a clue where to begin.

Harry started anyway. "Well, let me start by giving you a brief idea of the current state of the wizarding world. Right now we there's a war going on in Europe between Lord Voldemort and his followers, and those that oppose them. Voldemort... well, he's a sick and twisted bastard out to destroy all muggle-borns and semblances of decency in the world," he said thoughtfully, trying to sum up his arch nemesis in one sentence.

"I'm sorry," Tucker interrupted, "but what's a muggleborn? Or a muggle, for that matter?"

Sirius chuckled, "Right, sorry. A muggle is a non-magic person. A muggle-born is a person born with magical powers but whose parents are muggles. Sometimes, you even get a child who is born to magical parents, but has no magical powers themselves. We call them squibs, and they tend to be looked down on."

Harry picked up where he had left off before the interruption. "Somewhere along his miserable life, Voldemort acquired an intense hate for anyone and anything muggle, and seeks to 'cleanse' the wizarding world of half-bloods and muggle-borns." Harry continued with a far off look of pain and hate in his eyes, "He's killed thousands of people, including my parents, a fellow classmate, and... up until recently, I thought one of his followers had killed my Godfather... the only family I had– have," he corrected himself "left. He's an indescribably evil person, and I'm the only one who can stop him." Harry finished with a determined look in his eyes.

Sam's eyes widened and she asked, "The only one? Are you really that powerful of a wizard?"

Harry sighed. "Well, not really, although people go through phases of thinking that I am. There was a prophecy made shortly after I was born, the gist of it saying that I would have the "power that the Dark Lord knows not" and that I would be the only one able to kill him, and he the only to kill me."

The three sat silently as they absorbed this information, and Harry continued, "Well, Voldemort managed to get a hold of part of the prophecy, and on Halloween night fifteen years ago, he murdered my parents to get to me. The only thing that saved me was my mother's love, and when Voldemort cast the Killing Curse on me, it rebounded and nearly destroyed him. The only thing I came away with was this scar," Harry then lifted his bangs to show them the ever famous lightning bolt.

Danny couldn't help but feeling sad for Harry, even though he didn't seem to need the sympathy. His own parents might be dorks, continually embarrassing him, and almost destroying him with their many 'defective' ghost inventions, but he still loved them, and he couldn't imagine what he'd do without them. It seemed strange that such a horrible villain like Voldemort could exist... most of the enemies he had faced had never actually _killed_ anybody.

Suddenly, Danny felt a horrible wave of uneasiness flow over him, and a slightly nauseous knot of ill-boding settle in the pit of his stomach.

"I've encountered him on a few other occasions, the most recent being a about a month and a half ago, at the Ministry of Magic." Harry said.

"Ministry of Magic?" Danny asked, trying desperately to not let his unexplainable anxiety show in expression or voice.

"Yeah, basically the governing body of the wizarding part of England. The current Minister is an idiot, though..." Sirius made a noise of agreement. "Anyway, while we were at the ministry–"

"Why were you at the Ministry at the first place?" Danny interrupted again. Focus on the conversation, ignore the paranoia, everything's _fine..._

Harry looked away, almost ashamedly, and said, hesitantly, "I have... dreams, or visions, about things sometimes, because... because of my connection to Voldemort." seeing the obviously confused faces, he tried to explain, "When Voldemort gave me this scar, we think he sort of... left something behind. Ever since I my first– well, second encounter with Voldemort in my first year of Hogwarts, I've had vivid dreams through his eyes whenever he's especially angered or... pleased." The green-eyed teen gave a small grimace. It was apparent that he'd seen things he'd wished he hadn't.

"In some instances, I got useful information that ended up helping someone, but... Voldemort finally realized what was happening, and used it against me."

He closed his eyes, as if dealing with an especially hard memory, but continued, "He sent me false visions of a place in the Ministry of Magic called the Department of Mysteries, because there was something he wanted there. When I wouldn't take the bait, he sent me a vision of... of Sirius being tortured there. I fell for it without a second thought." He shook his head. "It was there that he was hit with a spell and fell through the veil, and the only reason he was there was to save _me._ Everyone thought he was dead, because criminals used to be executed by sending them through the veil. He might as well have been hit with the Killing Curse."

Harry swallowed and shook his head. Danny couldn't blame him for being emotional; that was a crap load of stuff to deal with– more than he, himself, ever had to deal with. Even the encounter with his evil future self and almost-demise of the people closest to him didn't really touch all that Harry had been through. And Danny got the feeling that all that wasn't even the half of it.

Danny blinked as he picked up on another part of what Harry had said. Criminals were sent through the veil as a form of execution...

"So... all those skeletons," Danny directed as Sirius, "Those were the bodies of people who had been executed for crimes?" Somehow, knowing that they had been criminals didn't make Danny feel any better. They hadn't just been killed, they'd been left in a place like the ghost zone to starve slowly, rotting away in a place already reeking of death. The halfa shivered.

Sirius nodded. "When I fell through the veil," he said, "I was surprised to still be alive, but after seeing I was in a sealed room littered with corpses with no way out, I didn't expect that condition to last much longer. So, naturally I was rather elated to have someone open the door and take me back into the normal world. Thanks for that, by the way," he nodded to the three overwhelmed teenagers.

"No problem," Danny muttered.

"Anyway, last night I contacted Harry to let him know I was alright, and now, here we are!" Sirius finished with an enthusiastic and carefree wave of his arms. "How _did_ you get here, by the way?"

"Knight Plane." Harry answered, and Sirius nodded knowingly. Sam was about to ask, but was interrupted as Danny spoke again, apparently continuing on a previous line of thought.

"So..." Danny started thoughtfully, "That's what you meant about being suspicious of the dreams you had about me... but wait, if your visions are because of Voldemort, then why were you having visions about _me_?"

Harry just sighed, "That, I have no idea about."

"It could be that you actually have The Sight, Harry," Sirius grinned and continued, "I'm sure Trelawny will be so proud."

Harry adopted a look of mild horror and groaned, "Hermione would kill me if it were true... and Ron would have me doing all of his divination homework."

Sirius chuckled, but said more seriously (no pun intended), "You know, your mother had a mild gift in The Sight,"

"Really?" Harry said as he smiled warmly, looking more light-hearted than Danny and his friends had seen him yet.

"The Sight?" Sam inquired, understandably puzzled.

"There are many different kinds of magic," Sirius explained mildly, "And one of them is Divination, that of predicting the future and giving prophecies. Very few have a true enough Sight to give prophecies or accurate predictions, but it comes in varying degrees of potency."

Sam nodded in understanding, looking understandingly awed by all this new information.

Danny had one more question. "What was the... uh, spell, that you tried to cast on us?"

Sirius looked a bit sheepish as he said, "Ah, well, that was a memory erasing charm. You see, muggles aren't really supposed to know about wizards and all that. In fact, there's a whole branch of our government that's in charge of keeping the wizarding world a secret from the muggles." He grinned, "I suppose we can make an acception, in this case."

"Gee, thanks," Danny said, not quite feeling all that grateful for being able to keep his own memories.

"So!" Sirius continued, "Would you mind telling us a bit about yourself?" Harry had also sat forward and was looking at Danny expectantly. _Well_, Danny thought,_ they already know, really, and they seem trustworthy enough..._

Making up his mind, Danny introduced the three of them. "I'm Danny Fenton, or Phantom, depending on which form you see me in. I try to keep it a secret, so if you happen to run into anyone from around here, don't say anything. This is Sam Manson, and Tucker Foley, my two friends and formerly the only people to know my secret. Well, I guess it was three, counting Danielle..." Sam and Tucker waved when their names were called, and Danny continued.

"Anyway, my parents are crazy scientists that are obsessed with ghosts. They'd been working for ages on a way to travel between this world and the next, which they labeled the 'ghost zone'. However, they got to a certain point and gave up. I... well, I thought I could help them out and figure it out if I took a look around," He adopted a vaguely sheepish expression, "And I did. It just needed to be turned on. But the switch was on the inside– and that's where I was when it was turned on. I've been half ghost ever since."

"Half ghost?" Harry asked incredulously, "Is that even possible?" He directed at Sirius.

"I haven't the foggiest. I mean, we can't dispute the evidence sitting right in front of us," Sirius said as he gestured at Danny, "But I didn't know there were ghosts that weren't permanently intangible."

"Permanently intangible?" Danny asked with a shiver. Sure, going intangible had its uses, but being like that forever? How can you fight if you can't touch anything?

Sirius nodded. "The ghosts that we're familiar with float around and moan a lot, but that's about it. They bring a chill to the air, but they don't harm people, because it's physically impossible. They can be invisible if they want, but they can be just transparent if the mood suits them."

"Are you kidding?" Tucker asked incredulously, "If only all the ghosts in Amity park were like that! You'd never have a thing to worry about, Danny!"

"You have a lot of ghosts here?" Harry asked innocently.

The three of them exchanged a look and burst out laughing. "If only you knew!" Sam managed through her giggles.

"We've been haunted and pestered by all sorts ghosts since the portal was created," Danny explained with a smile still on his face. "Somehow, the ghosts always manage to escape, even when the portal is closed. My parents try to keep it under control, but Tucker, Sam, and I are the ones doing most of the work."

"Yeah, Danny's like the resident super hero!" Tucker said enthusiastically, glad to be able to brag about his friend for once. "And me an' Sam are his faithful sidekicks!"

Sam punched Tucker in the arm around Danny, earning an 'ow!' from Tucker, as she said, "We're not his 'sidekicks', we're his friends!"

Danny just rolled his eyes and said, "Only problem is, the stupid things always manage to get back out again after we throw them back in. Some days, they escape faster than we can catch them!"

"Hey, aren't your parents and Jazz supposed to be home soon?" Tucker asked after glancing at his watch.

"What?" Danny asked, alarmed, "Why? What time is it?"

Just then, the front door burst open to reveal none other than Jack, Maddie, and Jazz Fenton.

"Danny, my son, we have returned from the ghost convention!" Jack proclaimed loudly, "Come here and give me a hug, son!" he then proceeded to lift Danny clean off the couch into a bone-breaking hug.

"Nice to see you too, Dad," Danny wheezed.

"Hello, Danny, I trust you've been behaving yourselves," Maddie said sweetly, "Who are our visitors, dear?"

"Ghosts!? Where?" Jack dropped Danny unceremoniously and whipped his head around frantically. "I'll get every last one of you, you filthy ghost scum! Now, come out and face me!"

Maddie sighed and then stepped into action before any serious damage could be done. "Jack, sweetheart, why don't you go get the bags from out of the RV?"

"Of course, dear, just soon as–"

"Now!" Maddie said in her commanding voice.

"Right!" Jack exclaimed as he bounded out the door, presumably to gather their luggage. Harry and Sirius just shook their heads at the sight, as though they'd seen behavior just as strange before.

"So, Danny," Jazz picked up where their mother had left off, "Why don't you introduce our guests."

"Uh, right. This is Harry Potter, and Sirius Black. They're, uh..." Danny flailed, trying to think up some kind of excuse. You'd think he'd be better at it by now, after all the times he'd have to make up excuses for himself.

"We're visiting some relatives from around here," Sirius saved. "My son and I got a bit lost, and knocked on a nearby door to ask for directions. They were kind enough to let us in and help us out. Sorry for the intrusion, we were just about to leave–"

Sirius was about to stand up, but was stopped by Maddie's enthusiastic answer. If she noticed anything odd about Sirius' ragged, robed appearance, she didn't say anything. "Nonsense!" She exclaimed, "Why don't you stay for lunch at least?" She leaned over and whispered to Jazz, "Jasmine, would you mind, you know I'm horrible in the kitchen–"

Jazz just rolled her eyes and smiled warmly at her mother. "No problem, mom," she said and then disappeared into the kitchen.

"Well, I should go help Jack with the bags." Maddie said before running after her husband. Hopefully he hadn't caused too much damage while he was alone...

Danny let out a big sigh. "Sorry 'bout that." he said to Sirius and Harry.

"No problem. Your family seems nice..." Harry said with an almost wistful smile.

Danny shrugged. "I'm going to assume that you'd rather us keep quiet about your, you know..."

"Er, yeah, that'd be great." Harry said. "Do your parents and sister know–?"

"No!" Danny answered hurriedly. "And I'd like to keep it that way."

Harry just smiled. "No problem."

Danny just took a deep breath and basked in the oddness of the day. Things had certainly gotten weird, but nothing really bad had happened... maybe he really didn't have anything to worry about after all.

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A/N: Ha, ha! Think again, Danny!

Yeah... longest chapter I've ever written... fastest I've ever posted... you should feel very, very lucky. :D Reviews are always appreciated!

'Til chapter 4!

;-;Adrian Winter;-;


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Yes, I know it's been ages, and I'm sorry... I've been busy and uninspired.

My major concern for this chapter were the writing for situations with several characters at once– it's hard for me to not forget about characters and just let them fade into the background.

Enjoy!

**Edit November 13, 2007:** Read through it and tried to fix it up a bit. Nothing major.

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**Of Ghosts and Wizards**

CHAPTER 4

The eerie silence of the ghost zone was suddenly interrupted as a large stone door with strange carvings was pulled open once again. The figure with the red eyes and a draping black garment stood in the door way, chuckling darkly at the fluttering veil below him. He simply basked in an unspoken victory as he laughed evilly at the myriad of locks that were on the door-- but that had, luckily for him, been left unlocked.

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The large and odd group of people that had gathered in the kitchen of the Fenton household was seated around the thankfully large and round kitchen table. Maddie and Jack sat next to each other, with Jazz to their left and Danny to their right; Sam sat next to Jazz, Tucker next to Danny, and finally Harry and Sirius sitting on the opposite side of the table. They were all enjoying completely edible sandwiches, chips, and sodas that Jazz had so graciously prepared for them.

"You and your son are from out of town, isn't that right Mr. Black?" Maddie Fenton asked cheerfully before popping a potato ship into her mouth with a startling amount of etiquette. "Where from, if you don't mind us asking?"

As his mother spoke, Danny noticed the odd but warm look that crossed over Harry's face when she mentioned him being Sirius' son.

"England, actually," Sirius answered with equal cheerfulness. "And please, just call me Sirius."

"Have many ghosts in England, Sirius?" Jack asked enthusiastically and hopefully.

The animagus was opening his mouth to say more when Harry saw Danny signaling none-to-discreetly with a hand slashing motion across the neck, which Harry took to mean, 'don't go there if you know what's good for you'.

"Er, no, not really," Harry cut Sirius off before any damage could be done, ignoring the slightly bemused expression Sirius shot him. "At least, not any that we know of." He finished, trying to sound as convincing as possible, and glancing at Sirius to tell him to play along; everyone ignored Jack's crestfallen expression.

"Right. Absolutely no supernatural activity in England. None, whatsoever." Sirius added unnecessarily with a cheeky grin. Danny just mentally shook his head from his position next to Harry, exchanging amused glances with Sam and Tucker, and smiling a bit at how Harry was rolling his eyes in exasperation. It was clear, though, that even though Harry seemed exhausted, he was completely comfortable and happy with the situation. And gosh, Danny thought, why shouldn't he be? He had just been reunited with his only family member that he had previously thought to be gone forever. He had every right to be happy.

Danny, however, was just as anxious and unsettled as ever, and he sighed quietly trying to calm himself down, hoping that no one would notice.

In an obvious attempt to draw attention away from his Godfather, Harry said, "Er, thanks very much for lunch by the way, you really didn't have to–"

"Oh don't be silly!" Maddie interrupted him, "We don't mind at all, do we?" She directed at her children.

The question was asked nicely enough, but Danny and Jazz detected the subtle be-polite-or-else tone in their mother's voice, and shook their heads fervently.

"Of course not, it was no trouble at all," Jazz smiled and added for good measure, earning a beaming grin from Maddie.

"You're staying with family, correct? Anyone we might know?" Maddie continued the conversation good-naturedly.

"Er..." Neither Harry nor Sirius seemed to have any sort of cover story, so Danny did his best to distract his parents from asking any more questions, innocent as they were.

"Hey, Mom, why don't you tell us about the convention?" He jumped in with as much enthusiasm as possible.

Harry shot him a grateful look, to which Danny just smiled in understanding. Neither of them noticed Jazz observing them quietly.

Sam caught on quickly, and recognition shone in her eyes. "Yeah, Mr. And Mrs. Fenton, you know how much we love hearing about the latest in ghost fighting technology." She said, sounding more sarcastic than anything else, despite her attempts at sounding genuinely interested.

It was enough, however, for Jack and Maddie Fenton.

"Danny, my boy, I'm so glad you asked!" Jack proclaimed in his ever booming voice.

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Several hours later found the majority of the aforementioned company bored out of their minds. Harry and Sirius, at first, had been mildly interested since the ghosts here seemed to be so different to those that he was familiar with, but one can only take so much. Danny, Sam, Tucker and Jazz, having heard similar tales of wondrous ghost technology so many times before, had contented themselves with sitting quietly, trying not to look _too_ bored as they let their minds wander over more interesting things.

Finally, Jazz decided that her parents had had enough fun for one day. "Weeelllll, as fascinating as this is, Mom, Dad," She interrupted Jack firmly from his tirade about an interesting adaptation a fellow scientist had attempted on the basic idea of the Fenton Fisher, "I'm sure that Mr. Potter and Mr. Black would like to get moving along to see the people they're actually here to visit–"

"Oh! Of _course_, please don't let us keep you!" Maddie said obligingly, immediately standing up as if to show them to the door. "Here, let me show you out, and give you any directions you might need– "

"Oh, Mom, sit down, me and Danny will take care of it!" Jazz interjected once again, jumping up and practically dragging Danny out of his seat and in the direction of the living room. She recognized that _some_thing was going on with their strange visitors, and that somehow, Danny knew what it was.

"Uh, yeah, me and Sam should probably go too, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton. Don't get up, we'll let ourselves out." Said Tucker hastily as he, Sam, Harry, and Sirius all stood up as well.

Suddenly, the Fenton Kitchen was empty except for Jack and Maddie.

"Well... they certainly seemed nice, didn't they Jack?" Maddie said happily as she began to clean up the dishes.

"Yes, yes indeed." Jack replied. "They didn't seem ghost-affiliated in any way at all. Although, they didn't even get a chance to look at any of our inventions..."

Hating to see her husband disappointed, Maddie abandoned the dishes for a more noble cause. "Say, Jack, dear, why don't we head down to the basement and get working on that new idea of yours?"

Immediately Jack's face lit up with enthusiasm. "You read my mind, Maddie!" He proclaimed before springing up and sprinting off in the direction of the basement. Maddie simply smiled fondly as she followed him.

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Meanwhile, Harry, Sirius, Sam, and Tucker were heading out the door as Danny tried to think of a way to head out with them without Jazz getting suspicious. He never got the chance, however, as Jazz immediately took over.

"Well hope you find your way okay and come over again soon Sam and Tucker bye!" Jazz said quickly as she practically shoved them out the door before slamming it shut behind them

"Wai– hey!" Danny squawked, "You didn't have to kick them out like that!" He practically yelled, extremely irritated at his sister for unintentionally ruining his chances at talking more with the wizards from England.

"Just relax for a sec, I want to talk to you." Jazz said quietly and soothingly. Danny's anger was quickly forgotten, startled away at the light but serious tone to Jazz's voice.

"Uh, okay, what is it?" He asked.

Jazz looked away, biting her lip, before she started. "Look, Danny, I know about, well," Suddenly her voice got even quieter, and Danny was starting to get a little nervous. She glanced back to make sure their parents weren't anywhere nearby before she continued, "I know that you're half ghost–"

Danny's heart skipped a beat.

"–and that you're the ghost kid that's been going around protecting the town–"

His stomach sank, and he closed his eyes. She knew? What would she do, would she tell their parents?

"–and I just wanted you to know that I'm always here if you need me."

Danny finally pulled himself from his inner turmoil and panic long enough to actually listen to what his sister was saying.

"Wait, you– you're not mad?" He asked in almost a whisper, tentatively looking up at Jazz.

"No." She said as she smiled. "I was hoping you'd tell me yourself, but for some reason it just felt right to tell you that I already knew."

"How long?" He asked, still feeling a bit shaky from the discovery of his secret, but starting to feel better already.

"Since the whole thing with Spectra." She replied, and then paused, neither of them sure what to say. Finally, she added, "I mean it, you know. If you ever need help, I might not be of much use, but you can always count of me." She smiled warmly, and her light teal eyes shone with sisterly compassion.

Danny couldn't help but grin, and suddenly launched forward and grabbed Jazz into a tight hug, which she immediately returned.

"Thanks, Jazz." He said sincerely as he pulled away.

"No problem, little brother." She ruffled his hair affectionately and laughed when he ducked out of her reach with an indignant "Hey!", although he still had a smile on his face.

"Now. What's the deal with those Potter and Black guys?" She asked.

Danny froze. Darn Jazz for being so observant! He was about to deny any and everything unusual, but then he just sighed. Jazz could obviously keep a secret, but then...

"I'm not going to lie to you, Jazz, there's definitely more to them than meets the eye," Danny said, biting the inside of his mouth, "But the thing is, it's not really my secret to tell. To be honest, I don't think you'd believe me anyway."

Jazz looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding slowly. "I understand." She smiled and continued, "So, are you going to go catch up with them or what? Don't worry about Mom and Dad, I'll tell them you went out to hang with Sam and Tucker."

Danny just smiled and called out another heartfelt "Thanks Jazz!" as he rushed out the door.

Jazz shut it softly behind him before heading back up to her room to prepare another lesson for one of the kids she was tutoring over the summer.

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Danny walked a few hurried steps down the street, before realizing he had no idea where his friends and Harry and Sirius had gone, or if the wizards were even still in America. He rolled his eyes at his own silliness before whipping out his cell phone and calling Sam.

Holding the cellular device to his ear, he stood idly listening to it ring once, twice, and then–

"Danny?" Came Sam's voice through the speaker.

"Hey, Sam. Sorry about Jazz totally kicking you guys out–"

"Yeah, what was up with that?" Sam asked, a slightly worried tone to her voice. "Is everything alright?"

Danny almost nodded before realizing Sam (obviously) couldn't see him. "Everything's fine actually. Turns out Jazz has known for a while about me being, well, you know..."

Sam gasped. "No way, really? Wow... I guess we should have known she'd be smart enough to figure it out. And she was cool with it and everything?"

"Yeah, actually she was _really_ cool about it." Danny couldn't help but grin. On the other end, Sam was sure she could here the smile in his voice.

"Well, that's great, Danny. One less person to hide from all the time, right?"

"Right." He replied. He shuffled his feet a bit on the sidewalk before he remembered why he called in the first place. "Hey, are Harry and Sirius still around? Where are you and Tuck, anyway?"

"Oh, that's right. They decided to hang around for a bit until they figured out a way to get home without being noticed. Something about Sirius being an ex-convict or something." Danny raised an eyebrow at that, and Sam continued, "We're all at my house. I'm trying to find some clothes of my Dad's for Sirius to borrow– why don't you grab something of yours for Harry before you head over?"

"Okay, I'll be over in a sec. See you Sam."

"Bye Danny." Sam replied before Danny heard the telltale click of the other line disconnecting.

The young halfa ducked into a nearby alley way and quickly went ghost before flying up and into his bedroom, after becoming invisible and intangible of course. He rustled around in his closet for a few minutes, trying to find something that would, one, fit Harry, and that was, two, clean.

Finally, he emerged triumphant with a fairly decent pair of jeans that were a bit to big for him. Harry was pretty much his size, but an inch or two taller, so these would probably work just fine, Danny thought. In addition, he also managed to find a plain but clean white t-shirt that also seemed like it would fit the young wizard.

Folding the clothes and grabbing a pair of socks as an afterthought, Danny exited his own house and took off in the direction of Sam's mansion. He took a leisurely pace (although it was still faster than most of the cars on the road) and simply enjoyed the feeling of flight that he had come to love since receiving his powers. Of all the things that he could do, he thought, that was the one thing he enjoyed the most.

After only a few short minutes, Danny got to Sam's house and phased through the roof and several of the main floors before finally reaching the basement (also known as the media room, due to the theater sized screen that was used for video games and movies alike).

Taking a quick survey of the room, he saw Tucker wowing Sirius with the magic of video games, Sam just entering the room with a pile of clothes, presumably for Sirius who, upon closer inspection, really did need some new duds. Not only was his current attire a bit ragged and torn, but it would also stick out horribly in a group of– what did they call non-magic people again? Muddles... moogles... oh, that's right, muggles, Danny thought. Yes, he definitely could use some new clothes. And as for Harry–

Danny almost yelled out in surprise for, having finally located Harry in the back of the room, he saw that the young wizard was staring directly at him, despite the fact that he was still invisible.

Flying over to where Harry was sitting, Danny hovered himself into a sitting position in one of the movie theater style seats next to him. Now that he was closer, it was clear that Harry wasn't looking _directly_ at him, but it was definitely very close.

The emerald eyed wizard had a thoughtful look on his face. Finally, he whispered, "Er... Danny? Is that you?"

The halfa grinned and became visible, transforming in the process and flopping fully into his seat. Harry jumped a little, but overall didn't look that surprised.

"Yeah. How did you know?" Danny asked. He may have been grinning on the outside, but he was still surprised that Harry had detected him.

Harry just turned to look again to the front of the room where his Godfather sat oogling after the strange technology. Finally he shrugged and said, "The room got colder, and I could just sort of feel where it was coming from. When it got more concentrated, I figured the ghost was closer. I didn't sense any malevolent intent, so I figured it was you."

A look of disbelief covered Danny's features. "You can just _sense_ all that?" He asked incredulously.

Harry shook his head, adopting a quirky smile. "To be honest," he said, "I don't really understand it myself. I suppose I could ask Dumbledore when we get back..."

Danny was curious about this Dumbledore fellow, but now that he had the chance to talk to Harry, there were several other things that he could think of that he'd rather ask about. He was, however, quickly distracted once again.

For, unknowingly, Danny's gaze had wandered downward, and suddenly he noticed odd-looking scars on the back of Harry's right hand. With a small jolt, Danny realized that the scratch marks actually formed letters, that in turn spelled out a single sentence:

_I must not tell lies._

Those weren't... self-in_flic_ted, were they?

Feeling a bit sick at the prospect of someone slicing open the back of their own hand like that, Danny looked up and was about to ask when he noticed Harry was watching him again. Suddenly he felt like the person that had been caught staring (which he was, actually, but that wasn't the point), and so he quickly diverted his gaze.

"Sorry," Danny said, embarrassed. He could feel Harry shrug beside him.

"S'alright." Harry said, "I can't blame you for being curious."

Danny once again started nibbling the inside of the side of him mouth before he asked, "If you don't mind me asking, what it that _from_, exactly?"

Harry sighed, but didn't seem upset as he said, "Well, to sum things up there was this really foul teacher that we had last year at Hogwarts. She had me write lines in detention, using a special quill that uses your blood instead of ink. I'm not sure how many times I had to write it, but each time it would cut the words into my skin, before healing back over. Eventually, it just stopped healing."

Eyes wide and feeling slightly horrified, Danny asked, "Aren't there laws against stuff like that?"

Harry laughed humorlessly. "Probably, but last year was a little hectic, to say the least. The whole school got turned upside down... don't worry though, Hogwarts really isn't that bad. Some of the wizarding world is just a bit outdated, is all."

Danny just stared at him, befuddled by the word 'Hogwarts', before he thought of something else. "Why 'I must not tell lies.'?"

Giving a wry grin, Harry looked Danny straight in the eye. "She didn't believe that Voldemort had come back to life. I told her that I saw it, that I was _there_, and that I _fought_ him. I never stopped telling the truth." He finished grimly.

Danny nodded, not fully understanding but feeling like he knew vaguely what Harry had gone through. He knew what it was like to be surrounded by people that didn't believe him, even though he was only trying to do the right thing. It seemed like, on the whole, Harry's life had been difficult.

Suddenly Danny wondered why Harry was being so open with someone he had known for less than twenty-four hours. Somehow, it just didn't seem in character.

_Oh, look who's talking, Fenton,_ Danny thought to himself, _Like you even know what would be in or out of character for this someone you just met._

He looked over at Harry, who's gaze had wandered back over towards where Sirius sat asking questions about various 'muggle' contraptions, virtually holding Tucker and Sam prisoner in order that they would explain the ways of their world. Danny could see the smile in Harry's eyes.

"So, what's the plan for you two? Are you going to head out right away?" Danny asked.

Harry shook his head. "We really _should_ get back so that people don't worry, but me 'n' Sirius decided we'd just hang out for a while and relax. Sam already offered to let us stay– _you_ don't mind, do you?"

"No, of course not!" Danny said, a bit surprised that Harry thought he might.

"Plus," Harry continued, "We need to find a way to contact people back home, so we can set up a safe mode of travel."

"What's wrong with the way you got here? How _did_ you get here?" The halfa asked.

"Ah, I got here by plane," Harry said.

Danny was a bit confused. "That's so... normal."

Harry laughed, startling the young half ghost.

"Not as normal as you would think." He replied with a smile still on his face. "And to answer your other question, we want to be as discreet as possible. Sirius and I are both... er, very _well known_ in the wizarding world. So we were hoping to arrange to travel by floo or portkey, as opposed to something as pulbic as the Knight Plane."

Danny just stared at Harry blankly, several foreign terms having thrown him for a loop.

"Uhhh..." Danny said, as eloquent as ever. "Foo? Porkey?" He asked in complete confusion.

Harry burst out laughing again, and was still giggling when he finally managed to say, "That's _f-floo_, and _portkey_, not– ha ha– _foo_ and _porkey_... ha _ha_... s-sorry," He said seeing Danny glare at him. Finally managing to conquer his mirth, Harry continued, "Floo is travel by fireplace, and a portkey is an object that transports you from one designated point to another. Both aren't easy for us at the moment because we don't know any wizards in the area, and it'd be difficult to set a portkey because we're not sure where it'd be safe to set it up for... anyway."

Despite feeling overwhelmed by all the new information, Danny was about to start asking even more questions, when he suddenly realized he still had a pile of clothes sitting in his lap.

"Oh, uh, I have these for you if you want to borrow them." He said as he held out the jeans, shirt, and socks to Harry.

When Harry didn't say anything, Danny panicked slightly, and hoped that he hadn't made some kind of British faux pas by unintentionally insulting Harry's style or something like that. "Not that what you're wearing is bad," He said hurriedly, "It's just, Sam's lending some of her father's clothes to your Godfather so I figured–"

"Thanks," Harry said, cutting him off with a reassuring smile as he took the clothes. "Is there a place where I can change–?"

"Oh, right, follow me."

Danny stood up and walked towards the front of the room, finally getting Sam and Tuckers attention.

"Hey guys." He greeted.

"Hey, when did you get here?" Sam asked as she stood up.

"I've been here for a few minutes."

Sam adopted an irritated look as she slapped Danny upside the head and said. "What, you couldn't even say hello? This is my house, you know, you could at least let me know when you're _here_."

"Hey!" Danny yelled as his skull was smacked. "Easy there, I may be half ghost but I'm pretty sure I'm still susceptible to concussions."

Tucker just sniggered at their antics, before returning to his game.

"I was going to show Harry a place to change. Do you care which room he uses?" Danny asked, still rubbing the back of his head.

"Nah, and take Mr. Black too, would you?" She replied.

"What'd I say about that! Please, just call me Sirius," The animagus chastised lightly, "You remind be too much of the professors at Hogwarts when you say my name like that." He mock shivered.

Harry chuckled before looking at Danny expectantly.

"Oh, right. Come on up." Danny said and gestured for the two wizards to follow him up out of the basement. It might have been a little weird showing them around someone else's house, but Danny and Tucker had been over so often they practically lived there too, so really it wasn't that strange.

He led the them up a couple flights of stairs, before showing them a set of guest bedrooms attached to a bathroom.

"Here you go." Danny said. "Ah, I suppose these'll be your rooms. Just head back down to the basement when you're finished changing."

"Thanks," Harry said before heading into the nicely furnished room.

"Thanks very much, Danny" Sirius added cheerfully before doing the same.

Suddenly, Danny was left alone in the empty hallway. Taking a deep breath, he pushed back the anxiety that was beginning to creep up on him once again. Turning to take one last look at the closed doors that now housed two wizards from England, he went ghost and phased down back into the basement.

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A/N: Like I said, the thing I'm worried about, in terms of writing quality, are the scenes with several characters at once. That being said, I'd love to have some help in those areas.

Also, I felt like this chapter was a little too choppy, and didn't flow like the previous ones... plus, I didn't get as much happening as I had thought... but it's still so long... ah, well.

And, of course, reviews are welcomed and worshiped!

Til' chapter 5!

;-;Adrian Winter;-;


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Wooooo, it's been a while. This story appeared as a horrible monster in my psyche and roared menacingly, gnashing it's teeth hungrily and threatening to eat my spleen if I did not work on this story.

Thank you, so, so much everyone, for all you comments, and favs, watches. I really appreciate all the support. It also nurtures the fury of the beast; don't be afraid to feed the animals.

I've tried to figure out when this takes place in the DP universe. Obviously, this was started a while ago, and consequently doesn't quite fit with the end of the series and Phantom Planet and all that. Basically, just pretend that he has all the powers that he got in the show, but that Phantom Planet didn't happen, and Vlad was never Mayor... Yeah. I think that'll work... TTATT

Also, I fear I may have gone a bit overboard with the angst in this chapter... Hmmm. Ah well.

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**Of Ghosts and Wizards**

CHAPTER 5

When Danny returned to the basement, he found Sam and Tucker chatting quietly to each other amongst the movie theater style seats. He flopped down into a velvet covered chair next to them, turning back into his human self almost without a thought. "Hey guys."

"Hey Danny," Sam answered amicably.

"Dude, I'm glad you finally distracted that guy," Tucker said with mock tiredness, referring to Sirius. "It was a bit exhausting having to explain things as simple as electronics. Haven't they ever seen this stuff before?"

Danny shrugged. "How should I know? Maybe wizards don't use electricity or something."

"Yeah," Sam added, "Why would they need too? They've got magic..." She stared off a bit dreamily, and the tone of her voice was almost wistful.

Tucker snorted. "Whatever. Who needs magic. I'd take my PDA over a wooden stick _any_ day."

Sam glared. "I bet they can do a whole lot more with those 'wooden sticks'–" here, she gave a rather poor imitation of Tucker's voice, "–than you can do with your lame pile of circuits and metal."

Tucker gasped like he had been wounded and pulled away, cradling his PDA to his chest protectively. "How dare you! She's sensitive..." He rocked his precious technology in his arms and whispered words of comfort. "It's okay, daddy will protect you from the scary Goth girl with wizard envy..."

"Actually, wouldn't it be witch envy?" Danny added idly as he chuckled. "Really though, Sam, I haven't seen you this starry-eyed since that time the Ultra-Recyclo-Vegetarians came and gave that assembly at school," He said.

Sam smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "I dunno, I guess I really just like the idea. From what little they've told us, I already feel like..." She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands. A few moments of silence passed as she mulled over her words. "Like I wouldn't mind being a part of that world."

Danny just raised a skeptical eyebrow and exchanged a look with Tucker. His beanie-clad friend just shrugged and went back to cuddling with his PDA.

Danny smiled fondly at his friend. Really, it was just like Sam, he realized. She loved things that were different, and fantastical. Things that could make a difference in the world, like him having ghost powers. It made him unique, and allowed him to protect Amity Park and everyone in it. Having magic powers wouldn't be so different from that, he supposed.

Sam's hand waving in front of his face along with her voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

"He_llo_, Earth to Danny," She was saying, and a small blush feathered across his cheeks at having been caught staring. "Is anyone home in that ecto-plasmic head of yours?"

"Uh, yeah, sorry, what were you saying?" He coughed, averting his gaze away and up to the ceiling in a feeble attempt to be discreet.

Ignoring Tucker snickering knowingly from behind her, Sam continued, "I was _saying_ that it's been a while since we've seen Danielle, hasn't it?

Danny finally looked back at her and nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah. But she usually doesn't visit all that often anyway. After having been created, used as a minion, and captured by Vlad, she's probably not anxious to be cooped up in one place for too—"

Suddenly, Danny was bowled over by a stifling wave of painful unease. He gritted his teeth and his hands gripped the armrests of his chair until his knuckles turned white. Something was _wrong_, horribly wrong. But what was it? What the hell was _wrong_ with _him_?

He groaned miserably as his whole body clenched up involuntarily and his head swam, making him dizzy. Vaguely, he could hear both Sam and Tuckers' worried voices cutting through the fog, but he couldn't make out was they were saying. All he could hear, see, or feel was all the anxiety and ill-boding feeling's he'd had in the last few days solidifying into the shape of a shadowed figure. Robes the color of a starless night sky blended into the mist, and a macabre ivory mask burnt itself into his vision.

Quickly, it shifted and he flinched at the sound of high-pitched, agonized screams, and with bile rising in his throat he saw Danielle writhing mindlessly atop ruined concrete spattered with crimson grime. Her shrieks quieted as she faded from view, but they still echoed horribly in his mind as he saw two people lying lifeless on similar, battle-torn ground, their familiar eyes filmed over in death, lifeless and silent.

Danny screamed.

With a jolting, gasping breath of air, the teen's blue eyes snapped out. As his blurred vision righted itself he took great sobbing gulps of air, trying feebly to steady the intense shaking of his body. Finally, he noticed how he had fallen to the floor and curled in upon himself, clutching desperately to his head as unbidden tears of horror streamed down and soaked his face.

"Danny, oh please say something..." A familiar but trembling voice pleaded with him.

Stiffly uncurling himself and pushing himself up off the floor, Danny shakily looked into Sam's red-rimmed violet eyes. Both Tucker and Sam were kneeling next to him, and both looked scared out of their minds, especially Sam who's breath was hitching irregularly with small, stifled sobs.

"S-sam," He croaked; it came out almost like a plea for help.

At this small admittance Sam threw herself at him, pulling him close. He shook in her arms, still deeply affected by whatever had just happened. She simply held him tight, not making a sound as more tears made their way out of her tightly shut eyes. Tucker wrapped his arms around both of them, thinking that he'd never heard a scream like that come from Danny, and that he never wanted to hear it again.

After several calming moments, Danny pulled away, too shaken and disturbed to feel embarrassed. Rather, he was deeply grateful for the comforting gesture. His friends did so much for him...

"Danny," Sam broached softly, voice thick with her own tears, "What happened to you? You were fine and then you just... you j-just fell to the floor, clutching your head and screaming." She valiantly kept herself from crying again. As much as she would normally despise the idea of shedding tears so easily, this was different. This was _Danny_, and he had been in pain. It physically hurt to see him suffering like that, and Sam hated it.

"Yeah, man," Tucker added, his usual spunk toned down to nonexistence, "That was seriously intense. Are you okay?" Even his PDA lie forgotten, tossed aside in the face of something so much more important. Tucker Foley was no fool. A techno geek yes, but a fool, no. Danny was one of his closest friends, and that mattered more than anything else.

Danny gave a shuddering sigh and leaned back tiredly against one of the seats behind him. Sam and Tucker sat close, and their presence bolstered him and gave him the strength to recount what he had seen.

"It was a nightmare," He started uncertainly, staring off at the wall. "I felt all the bad feelings from over the past few days, only a hundred times worse, and I saw a cloaked figure with a creepy skull mask. And then..." He paused, suddenly feeling kind of numb. He opened his mouth, but no words came to mind, nothing coherent, at least, and he idly wondered if he was in shock.

A warm hand squeezing his grounded him, and he said in a rush, "Danielle was on the ground, screaming in pain," His voice cracked when he said her name, and Sam and Tucker's eyes widened. "She looked like she had been beaten already, with blood everywhere... and I can still-- could still hear her screaming when I saw... saw th-them on the ground, dead, they were... their eyes were still open and staring at me–" He was shaking again, and he gritted his teeth against the nausea and guilty apprehension settling in his gut.

"Oh, Danny," Sam murmured. She had no idea what to do. Nothing like this had ever happened before. This was more than a simple bad dream– he hadn't even been sleeping, and had collapsed screaming from the vividness of what he saw. What did it all mean, and what could they do about it? What could they possibly do?

"Er..."

Both Sam and Tuckers' heads whipped towards the doorway in which stood a very awkward looking Harry Potter. Danny didn't bother looking up; rather, he stared numbly at his feet, feeling thoroughly miserable, exhausted, and confused.

"Is everything alright?" Harry seemed worried but also realized he was out of place. "Sorry, it's not my business. I'll go back upstairs–"

"Wait."

They all looked at Danny tensely, who still hadn't lifted his head, and his wild black bangs hid his eyes from view. Harry took a couple of steps into the room and waited expectantly.

Listlessly, inklings of things he shouldn't have known made themselves present in Danny's mind, and so he voiced them, not knowing what else to do.

"Voldemort's followers, what do they look like?" His voice was oddly bland, and he continued before an answer could be given. "Do they wear black robes and have white, skull shaped masks?"

Harry's breath caught in his throat, his features shocked, and he walked forward quickly and knelt before Danny. "How did you know that?"

He finally looked up and their eyes met, blue clashing with green as the young teen replied, "I think I saw one."

A thoughtful, understanding look dawned in Harry's eyes as he saw a haunting shadow in Danny's that hadn't been there before. The young wizard closed his eyes briefly and sighed, before leaning back slightly and rummaging around in one the pockets of the borrowed jeans. He pulled out half a bar of chocolate and handed it to Danny, who just looked at it bemused-ly.

"Eat some," Harry prompted. "It'll help."

Tucker, who, like Sam, had been silent up until this point, suddenly reared up in anger on behalf of his friend. "What the hell is wrong with you?" He yelled, "Something really messed up is going on here, and you want him to eat a _candy bar?!?_"

"Tucker," Sam soothed, "Don't take things out on Harry, he's only trying to help–"

Danny, meanwhile, had taken a half-hearted bite of the proffered chocolate. Eyes widening a bit, he felt warmth seep back into him, and the horrible vision fade back into the recesses of his memory, dulling and losing it's harsh sharpness. He took another, larger bite and a deep breath, the despair that had engulfed him disappearing into the ether. Suddenly, he felt silly, getting so upset over a nightmare. Things felt safe, and normal, and he almost couldn't remember why he'd been so upset in the first place.

Face contorted with anger, Tucker was about to lash out again when Danny interrupted him.

"You know, I never realized chocolate could be so relaxing." He remarked casually. Seeing the disbelieving looks on his friends faces he gave a small, sheepish smile and said, "I, uh, feel better now? Seriously, though, is this, like, magic candy or something?"

Harry smiled a bit and replied, "Well, it's laced with a Calming Drought, so yes, you could say it's magic."

"A calming what?" Danny asked, perplexed.

Smile turning into a grin, Harry said, "A Calming Drought is a type of potion. It's not poisoned, I promise. I used to think that all chocolate was like this until just recently, but the truth is most Wizarding chocolates, or sweets for that matter, are produced with some such benevolent affect in mind."

"That's all well and good, but can we get back to the point here?" Tucker said with only mild irritation, having been calmed by Danny's quick recovery. "Something really wacked out happened to Danny, do you happen to have any idea what it was?" He eyed Harry almost suspiciously.

Harry's face darkened grimly as he looked down at the carpet with a sigh. Having been perched on the balls of his feet the whole time, he sat down and crossed his legs as he said, "Well, I didn't see the whole thing, but I saw enough of it. At first I was thinking maybe a dementor attack, but that couldn't be it because you two–" he gestured at Sam and Tucker, "–didn't seem to be affected, and I most certainly would have felt one near by."

"Wait, I'm sorry, but what's a d-dementedor?" Sam stumbled over the foreign word as her brow creased questioningly.

"A _dementor_ is a soulless, wraith-like creature that brings up your worst memories and sucks all the happiness out of you."

Now Danny was confused. "But the things I saw weren't real, I mean they never happened so they couldn't have been memories, right?" This, Danny thought, was something he was very grateful for.

"Then that's just one more thing that suggests that it wasn't a dementor." Harry nodded thoughtfully. "The only other thing I can think of is that you, er, had a vision of some sort." Harry finished not sounding completely sure of himself.

"Hold on, isn't that, like, a wizard thing?" Tucker voiced skeptically.

"What's 'a wizard thing'?"

The four teens turned to face the doorway once more as Sirius' cheerful voice sounded through the room and he jaunted in, hair damp from an apparent shower. He ambled happily over until he noticed the lackluster air surrounding his godson and his newly acquired band of muggle friends.

"Visions." Harry answered simply, chewing the inside of his mouth, perplexed. "They are, aren't they? I mean, only wizards can have The Sight or visions and things like that, right Sirius?" He looked questioningly up at his godfather.

Said animagus hummed thoughtfully as he flopped down into a comfortable chair, opting not to join the four teens down on the floor. "Well, Divination is just another form of magic," he said, "so technically it's impossible for a muggle or squib to have any degree of The Sight, since they wouldn't have any magical abilities whatsoever. Although..." Sirius adopted an extremely thoughtful, almost mischievous look on his face. "There are other things here that support the possibility of Danny having divinitave powers."

"Wait, seriously?" Tucker asked, "Like what?"

Sirius smiled. "You knew my name, didn't you?" He asked Danny.

The young ghost half-ling gave a small start, eyes widening at the realization.

"Come to think of it, you _did_ say that's what we should name him when we still thought he was only a dog." Sam mused, "I thought it was just something random that you came up with, but what are the odds of you guessing his actual name?"

Danny shook his head, "I didn't have to guess. It was like I was hearing voices. It didn't, like say, 'the dog's name is Sirius', or anything like that, I just sort of heard the name echo in my head, and _knew_ that the name... well, suited him."

Tucker huffed, disgruntled. "Okay, so he's going all freaky psychic on us. That still doesn't explain how or why."

Danny continued to nibble on the bar of chocolate, finding that it helped him from getting too stressed about the situation. He thought briefly about sharing it with Tucker. His friend seemed like he needed to relax a bit.

"That, I can't tell you for sure," Sirius shrugged, nonchalantly brushing Tucker's frustration aside. "There are two distinct possibilities that I can think of. Either Danny is a wizard, or his divinitive abilities stem from his being half ghost."

Sam latched onto the latter idea. "That would actually make sense! Ghosts from the Ghost Zone have all sorts of strange abilities. This is probably just another new power for you, Danny."

Frowning, Danny thought about the implications. Could that have been what all those horrible, anxious feelings had been about the last few days? Some sort of facet of a new ghost power that allowed him to know things that had yet to come, or that he wouldn't have otherwise been able to know? He wasn't so sure he liked the idea. Especially if the things he saw were unchangeable, concrete things that were going to happen in the future no matter what he did to try and change them.

"There's one way we can find out!" Sirius exclaimed, interrupting Danny's thoughts as he leapt up from his chair.

"A way to find out what?" Harry asked.

"If he's a wizard or not!" The wizard replied.

"But Sirius," Harry pondered, even as he stood up to get out of Sirius' way, "Wouldn't Danny know by now? I mean, accidental magic, or an invitation from a wizarding school would have happened already, right...?"

Sirius shrugged, ignoring the vaguely worried looks he was receiving from the muggles in the room as he rolled up his sleeves and pulled out his wand. "There are several reasons why a person might not know they are a wizard. It could be that Danny simply _hasn't been_ a wizard up until recently."

Harry sighed, feeling even more confused, and a little bit exasperated by his godfather's vague answers. "_But Sirius,_ if he wasn't a wizard before, how can he be a wizard now?" He prodded.

His question was dismissed by the wave of a hand as Sirius asked Danny to stand up in front of him.

"Um... this isn't gonna hurt, is it?" Danny was looking down the 'barrel' of the wand, so to speak, and it was making him a bit nervous. Tucker and Sam stood up as well, but didn't leave his side.

"Oh no, not at all." Sirius reassured, "Here we go then– _Aperio Magus Potestas!_"

Danny sucked in a small breath as a strange breeze blew over him, but instead of passing by it seemed to loop back around, winding it's way about his body before zipping back to the tip of Sirius' wand.

"This is a standard scanning charm," Sirius explained mildly as the spell took it's course, "It's used by impatient pure blood families who want to know immediately whether or not their child has magical potential, but also by healers to access situations of magical exhaustion, or the effects of magical backlash and other such things."

Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Harry alike watched fascinated as a dinging sound erupted from the wand moments before a small sphere of light appeared above it. It glowed and swirled, different colors conflicting with each other. This continued on for several moments before Sirius' brow furrowed.

"That's odd." The older wizard mumbled, bringing the wand closer and carefully inspecting the bright, colorful orb of light.

Sirius suddenly swung his wand around to point it at Harry, who underwent the same, winding windy sensation. The light turned a bright, cheery yellow, to which Sirius nodded, satisfied. He then did the same to Tucker, to which the light responded by turning a drab grey, which also seemed to satisfy Sirius. Sam's light turned red, which elicited a surprised sound and a raised eyebrow from the older wizard. And finally, again he turned back to Danny, which caused the little ball of light to return to it's original, colorfully chaotic state.

"_Finite Incantatum_. Well, that was certainly interesting." Sirius said.

Harry blinked, just as confused as the Danny, Sam, and Tucker. "Sirius, what was with the little ball of light that kept changing colors?"

As they all sat down in preparation for an explanation, Sirius began, "Well, being an information gathering spell, there has to be some way that the data is relayed. In this case, it is in the form colors. What the spell actually does is scan the person's magical core– or lack thereof. Each color means something different. Grey means no magical abilities whatsoever;" here, he gestured at Tucker who merely sniffed in response, "basically that the person is a muggle. Yellow is a healthy, teenage wizard such as yourself." He nodded at Harry before continuing. "As for the whole multi-colored bit that yours pulled, Danny, I've honestly no idea. I'd say that the sheer brightness and multitude of colors would suggest that you have a magical core of _some_ kind, but other than that..." Sirius waved his hands about indicating his lack of knowledge as he trailed off.

"Um..." Everyone looked at Sam as she spoke, "So, what does red mean?" She was worried– red usually wasn't a good color to be associated with.

Sirius rubbed the back of his neck, and the look on his face suggested he was about to step into the proverbial lion's den.

"Yes, well, I thought I ought to save that for last." Perching at the edge of the seat, he got very quiet and somber, choosing his words carefully as he spoke, "Red, an unusual color to come across, indicates the wizard or witch's core has been magically bound."

At the silence in the room, Sirius took a deep breath and said, "In other words—"

Amazingly enough, Danny was the first to realize the full extent of what Sirius was saying.

"Whoa, hang on a minute!" Danny said, "Does that mean—" his head whipped towards Sam, his eyes wide with disbelief. "—Sam's a _witch_?" He exclaimed, flabbergasted.

Sam, now the center of attention, just sat there, not quite comprehending the situation. "Me? But that's impossible," She scoffed, "There's no way..." Inwardly, she was reeling. It would be... just so awesome if it were true! But it was ridiculous. There was no way she had magic powers. She tried to picture her perfect, normal parents wearing robes and wielding wands, and burst out into laughter as a result. "C-Can you just picture my parents? There's just _no way_!"

"You said something about her magic being... uh, bound?" Danny prompted, still surprised beyond belief and barely managing a single coherent thought.

Sirius nodded and gestured as he replied, "It's a fairly complex spell that's meant to completely separate a person from their magic, prohibiting their use of it and making any bouts of accidental magic impossible."

"I don't understand," Sam was wringing the material of her skirt in her hands as she spoke, an almost crazy little laugh in her voice, "Why would someone do that to a person?"

"There are several possibilities. I'd imagine in this case that your parents wanted, for whatever reason, to distance themselves from the wizarding world. If you had grown up without your magic bound, they more than likely would have been forced back into that world a long while ago." Sirius finished.

The air was heavy with tension as they all waited for Sam's reaction. The young teen continued to fiddle with the hem of her skirt, her face completely devoid of emotion. Danny and Tucker exchanged worried looks; neither of them were quite sure how their female friend would react to such a revelation.

After several more tense minutes, Danny was about to reach out and coax her into talking when she suddenly growled and her face contorted with righteous, teenage anger.

"They lied to me!" She burst out, her incredulity suddenly transforming into a magnificent fury. Sam leapt up from her chair as she continued to rant. "They've been lying to me my entire life!" She fumed, "How could they possibly keep something like this from me! God, no wonder they hate how different I try to be– it reminds them of their dirty little secret!" The maroon carpet beneath her combat boots sizzled with static electricity as she stalked back and forth angrily.

Suddenly, her steps faltered as she seemed to realize something.

"Get it off," She breathed so quietly that no one heard. When she didn't get an immediate response, she whirled around, her body trembling with tension and a strangely frantic look on her face. "Get it off of me!" She yelled. Seeing that only confusion greeted her, she shouted, "The- the thing, the binding, whatever the hell it is that's keeping me from being able to do magic, take it off _right now_!"

Running a hand through unruly, curly locks, Sirius sighed and said, "Unfortunately that's not something I can do. Binding spells are of a very powerful and complex nature and it would be irresponsible for me to try and remove it by myself, or even with Harry's help."

Sam just shook her head, denial and desperation mingling and spreading across her features. She finally sank to her knees and buried her face in one hand, crying silently.

Danny was, quite truthfully, a bit shocked by Sam's outburst. Sure, he'd seen her angry before, upset and shouting, and had even seen her cry (not just earlier that day, either, though it was rare), but it had never seemed this _intense_ like this. His eyes widened when he saw the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes, and the way her hands were clenched so tightly that her knuckles had turned a horrible pasty white. He suddenly realized that she wasn't just angry– looking into her eyes, he saw hurt, betrayal, and fear. It made him feel horrible to see her so upset.

Not pausing to reflect on how their roles had become reversed, he slowly rose from his chair and approached her, kneeling beside her and wrapping her in a warm embrace. Her shoulders shook as she cried into his shoulder, not even bothering to put into words the things she was feeling.

Mostly, it was disbelief that her parents could keep something so big from her, something that would have normally affected her entire life, something that was rightfully a part of who she was. Her mind reeled violently as she tried to grasp the concept of her being a witch. She had only just discovered the existence of magic _that very same day_ for crying out loud, and now she had to swallow that, not only was she a witch, but she couldn't use her magic because her parents had chosen to bind it when she was born?! It was _way too much_.

"Hey, Sam, we'll figure this thing out, okay?" Danny murmured, feeling a bit awkward as a small flush spread across his cheeks but not letting it stop him from comforting one of his closest friends. "I know this is a lot but... hey, it's kind of cool, isn't it?" Despite the seriousness of the situation, he could still recall what Sam had said earlier. "You said you wouldn't mind be a part of that world, right? Well see, you already were and just didn't know it."

Sam lifted her head, calmer now, and gave a shaky smile, feeling better with Danny there beside her, holding and comforting her. Tucker hovered uncertainly nearby, but Sam didn't begrudge him his awkwardness. She and Tucker had never been quite as close as they both were with Danny. Not that they didn't get along, it was just that they probably wouldn't have hung out at all if it hadn't been for their mutual friend.

"Thanks Danny." She said quietly, rubbing harshly at the tears that lingered on her face. "You're right, I should be excited– I am, I guess, it's just a _lot_ to take in..."

She trailed off and sniffed loudly, taking a deep breath and clearing her throat, trying to regain some semblance of composure. Danny held back a small bit of laughter at her effort and simply gave her one more squeeze before pulling away as the concept of 'personal space' came back into existence. Not that either minded being that close, but nor would they admit it to each other– at least, not anytime soon, anyway.

"Yeah, I get it. I don't want to sound all-knowing or anything, but I think I get at least a little of what you're going through." Danny replied.

Sam gave a watery laugh. "I guess you would understand better than most, eh ghost boy?" She used the term affectionately and it made Danny's heart flutter a little at the way she said it. Giving her face one last scrub, Sam stood up and addressed Sirius and Harry, who had been sitting quietly to the side trying not to be intrusive. "Sorry about that—"

"'S quite alright. No worries. I'm sure if you talk with your parents you can get it all straightened out..." Sirius faltered at the grimace on the young teen's face.

"If you knew them like I do, you wouldn't have quite so much faith," She said bitterly, but immediately followed up with, "I'm tired of talking about it. Let's get back to the important things, like what exactly is up with Danny."

"Yeah, I don't get it, is he a wizard or not?" Tucker piped in, glad to be out of Sam-is-acting-emotional-oh-my-god-the-sky-is-falling territory.

Before Sirius could reply, a pained gasp shocked all those present. They all turned to find Harry hunched over, his hand pressed firmly against his scar, face twisted in agony.

"Harry! Harry, what's wrong?" Sirius spoke urgently, rushing to his godson's side.

"It's him!" Harry gasped, struggling to speak, "It's Voldemort— _he's here!_"

;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;

A/N: This could be considered a cliff-hanger, but... I've seen much, much worse.

Okay, I know there's a lot of technical magic theory crap, and so I apologize. I personally really enjoy that aspect of the HP universe, but also realize it probably got a bit dry for you all. Sorry!

Oh, and there's just a touch of fluff– it almost made me nauseous writing it, but they're just... so... cute together I couldn't help it, even if it didn't really belong.

Because of that, I'm not _thrilled_ with this chapter, but I still think it came out pretty good. Oh, and don't worry, after this there will be gasp action! That's right, you heard me! Spells will fly, ectoplasm will– er– ectofly! And horribly tragic things will befall our heroes.

As always, tell me what you think! I love hearing from you guys.

Till next time.

;-;Adrian Winter;-;


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: As it stands, never before have I ever written this much for a single fic. I guess this story was just meant to be written. XD Not to sound full of myself anything.

A quick note about Danielle: I can't for the life of me remember if she's met Danny' parents or not, and if so, how they reacted to her. So, for the purposes of this story, I'm just going to pretend that, at some point, she managed to convince them that she was a distantly removed Fenton relative, pretend that Jack and Maddie bought it, and leave it at that.

;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;

**Of Ghosts and Wizards**

CHAPTER 6

Upon hearing his Godson's declaration, Sirius adopted a look that suggested he had just been slapped in the face.

Having only an inkling of Voldemort's destructive capabilities, two of the three previously assumed muggles became only mildly concerned. Danny, however, clenched his teeth as a sharp wave of unease accompanied by brief flashes of Danielle's crumpled body and two horribly familiar faces frozen in death assaulted him once again.

Swallowing a lump in his throat, Danny immediately went ghost. It didn't matter what he was– ghost, wizard, or whatever _else_ he might be, the fact remained that it was highly likely that these 'visions' and feelings he kept having were prophetic. And deep in his gut, Danny knew, he _knew_, that though these things might not have happened yet, they _would_ happen, unless he did something about it. Whether or not he could change the future he saw... that was still up for debate, but no way in hell would it keep him from trying.

"Why is he here?" Sam asked worriedly, concerned even more by Danny's fiercely determined look and transformed state.

Harry shook his head, still grimacing as the pain seemed to fade only a little. "I don't know. I... I can't see anything– he's blocked me out, but I can still tell he's close by."

"Harry, we need to get you out of here," Sirius spoke firmly, "It's quite possible he lured you here in order to capture you—"

"That doesn't make sense..." Harry mumbled, though he looked torn between the illogical nature of the situation and a horrible guilt at the possibility of him having caused Voldemort to appear _anywhere_."I know that my visions of Danny weren't from Voldemort, but..."

"In any case, we need to leave, now." Sirius asserted.

Harry's face fell. "What about this city? We can't just leave all the muggles to fend for themselves!"

"We also can't sit here and fight Voldemort and his followers with just the two of us!" Sirius spoke loudly; normally he would say 'stay and fight!', but... his first priority had to be to keep his Godson safe. He owed James and Lily that much, at least, after all the mistakes he'd make. Already standing and turning to say a quick farewell to their hosts, he was greeted by the sight of Sam and Tucker fretting over a rather dazed and cloudy-eyed Danny.

Said halfa's mind raced. It couldn't be a coincidence that Voldemort, and presumably an entourage of Death Eaters, would show up only hours after Harry arrived and a day after they had found Sirius in the ghost zone.

And yet...

_And yet, indeed._

_The prophesied one is not the reason for the Dark Lord's presence, nor does the Dark Lord know that he is here._

His thoughts didn't make any sense to even himself– he couldn't possibly know why Voldemort was in Amity Park or what he wanted, and to add to it all the voice that these particular thoughts were spoken in didn't even really feel like his own; they were very similar, in fact, to the time he had known Sirius' name...

With a start, Danny gasped, suddenly grasping a concept that he hadn't before. If he had 'The Sight', or the power of Divination or whatever it was to be called, then he would have to learn to take advantage of the knowledge he gained from it. Even if all the questions weren't answered completely, he would have to simply trust in the small amount that he was given.

Suddenly he realized Tucker was waving a hand in front of his face, and saying something in an attempt to get his attention. Snapping back to the present, Danny found himself in the spotlight of everyone's gaze.

"You alright there, Danny?" Tucker asked. Though silent, Sam and grasped his hand and he squeezed back in thanks for the unspoken support.

"Did you see something?" Harry added before he could answer.

"Voldemort isn't here for you, Harry," Danny said, voicing the thoughts that had possessed a voice other than his own, skipping the pleasantry of assuring his own well-being to Tucker.

"In fact, he doesn't even knows you're here," Danny spoke plainly and without doubt, "It's just chance that you happen to be here at the same time."

Several baffled looks were thrown his way, and, glancing at his friends he saw them peer at him with expressions that said he had sprouted a second head.

"How could you possibly know that?" Tucker blurted out.

Danny threw his hands up in the air. "I'm 'going all crazy-psychic' on you guys, remember!" He exclaimed, quoting the phrase Tucker had used to describe his assumed prophetic abilities. "I don't know how I know, but I know that I _know _this stuff is true, okay?" He blathered, disregarding the fact that he was making absolutely no sense whatsoever.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Sam queried. "Nothing's happening... where is he? I doubt he's just skulking around in an alley somewhere nearby."

Sirius faltered. If it was true that Voldemort wasn't here for Harry, could they really just abandon this town to it's fate? Expression grim, he replied, "We won't know that unless we know what he's after."

Danny gasped when his stomach dropped as an involuntary feeling of horror swept over him. It left as quickly as it came, but it had made it's message clear.

"It has something to do with me," Danny breathed, eyes wide with realization. "H-he's after me!" He said louder, not knowing why, but knowing it was true.

Surprised and worried, Sam asked the obvious question, "But _why_?"

"I don't know!" He panicked, "But that fact that he's in Amity Park means he knows where I live, which means—!"

"If he'd be anywhere, it would be at your house!" Harry finished for him.

Face set despite the fear he felt for his family's safety, Danny said, "Sam, Tucker, you stay here, I'm going to go make sure my parents and Jazz are okay," He was about to speed off in the direction of his home when several protests stopped him.

"Take me with you," Sirius spoke first as Danny landed lightly back on the floor to listen, "I know I wanted to leave earlier, but that was only because I assumed it was _our_ presence that had brought the Dark Lord here."

Danny shook his head. "It's my family, and my problem. I'll protect them myself." The last thing he needed was more people hanging around for him to worry about.

"These are fully trained, dangerous, unmerciful, and unfamiliar enemies you're going to be dealing with!" Sirius said fiercely. "You're going to need the help of a wizard if you're going to win this battle!"

Harry nodded in agreement. "I have some serious experience dealing with Voldemort. Besides, Sirius and I can be your trump card— you said yourself he won't be expecting us."

As Danny's resolve to go alone crumbled, Sirius turned to Harry, a sharp look in his eye and a few choice words at the tip of his tongue. The look on his Godson's face stopped him from saying anything– he could already tell that there was nothing he could say to keep Harry from this battle.

"We're coming too!" Sam said forcefully, referring to herself and Tucker.

Danny shook his head. "No." he said simply.

Sam made a sound of disgust as she stalked forward to give her friend an ear full. "Listen, Mister the-world's-safety-is-my-responsibility-I-have-to-do-everything-myself-teenage-boy-with-a-hero-complex, we've been by your side through every fight, every ghost attack, every moment that ever mattered! It's always been dangerous, and I know you just want to protect us, but this isn't any different! You can't stop us. Even if you refuse to fly us there, we'll still follow you, Danny, by foot, through snow, for a thousand miles if we have to." She finished, breathing heavily from having spoken so vehemently.

"Uh, what she said!" Tucker added, mildly startled by the Goth's outburst.

Danny just stared at them both, ready to pull out his own hair but loving the both of them just the same for their unrelenting loyalty and stubborn dispositions. He almost forgot about why he hadn't wanted them to go in the first place. Oh wait. Murderous, muggle torturing, dangerous magic wielding fanatics. Tthat was why.

He groaned in frustration. "Fine, but be careful!" Not wanting to waste anymore time, he grabbed the two people that happened to be standing closest to him, Sirius and Sam, and instructed them to grab hold of Harry and Tucker.

Turning them all intangible, invisible, and carrying them while flying proved to be more of a challenge than Danny had expected, but he still managed to move at a considerable speed. While he flew, he scanned the ground and rooftops for any sign of robed and masked figures. His unease increased when he saw none.

"We're going to need a plan," Danny said as the neon sign of Fenton Works came into view, "It looks like they haven't attacked yet, but they could just be waiting for me to get home."

"Maybe he's not here to attack, maybe he's just here to observe, or something," Tucker interjected hopefully.

Harry shook his head. "No," He said, "Voldemort wouldn't show up anywhere to do something that his Death Eaters could do for him. If he shows up somewhere personally, it's something to be worried about."

They landed on the roof as Harry finished, but Danny kept them invisible while he tried to decide what to do.

"Okay," Tucker started talking, ever the one to plan, and everyone listened, including Danny. "We have a few advantages. They don't know that we will be expecting an attack, and already have an awareness of what magic is. Also, we have two wizards on our side, not to mention Danny, although if he's their main target it's safe to say they at least have some idea of his powers."

Face turning grim, he continued. "However, we will most likely be heavily outnumbered, and there will be at least three people caught in the cross-fire that will have no idea what it is going on, assuming they attack the house directly, and Danny's parents and Jazz are still home."

Danny's mind was a horrible mess as he tried desperately to come up with a quick and efficient way to prepare. His heart was racing in apprehension. It wouldn't be so bad, he though, if they at least knew where the evil wizards were hiding out. But the attack could happen any minute, and from any direction. Worst yet, they didn't even know Voldemort's true goal, other than the fact that he was, for whatever reason, after Danny.

After a short few moments that felt far too long, the young halfa had formed a vague plan.

Turning the whole group intangible once more, he flew them down to the basement, which was thankfully empty, and told Harry and Sirius his tentative plan. Sam and Tucker didn't even need to be told what to do– after fighting beside Danny for so long, they already knew what he was thinking.

"Sam and Tucker are going to stock up on ecto-guns and other Fenton inventions. They might be designed for ghosts, but some of them work just as well on people," Danny explained quickly and quietly, "I need you two to stay on the inside second story balcony, out of sight. Don't do anything unless it starts to look bad."

"What about your parents and sister?" Harry asked, concerned.

"I'm going to go find Jazz here in a minute and tell her what's going on. My parents..." Danny swallowed thickly as the same two lifeless faces flashed before his eyes once more. "I'm gonna knock them out and drop them off in Sam's basement."

Both Sam and Tucker had not been expecting that. "Dude, seriously? You know, they're not that bad of fighters, and we'll probably need all the help we can get—" Tucker said, but was silenced by the strange look on Danny's face. It was a cross between nauseous horror and stark, unwavering determination.

"No. They don't need to be involved in this." They can't be, Danny thought to himself, or else...

Sam studied the look on Danny's face as she tried to figure out his reasoning. He had never liked interacting with his parents as Phantom, but he'd never resorted to knocking them out to keep them from a fight. It seemed almost as if he was scared they were going to get hurt... suddenly it snapped in her head as she remembered his description of part of the vision he had earlier.

"_...and I can still-- could still hear her screaming when I saw... saw th-them on the ground, dead, they were... their eyes were still open and staring at me–"_

Danny had never actually said who those two people were, Sam thought, but they way he was acting, it must have been his parents. She stifled any reaction and quickly turned back to the task at hand, not daring to argue with him. If they weren't present for the fight, there was no way that particular fate could befall them.

"We understand." Sirius said simply. Danny nodded and was about to take the two wizards upstairs when he was interrupted.

"Wait!" Harry nearly shouted, "This is really important, especially for Sam and Tucker," Danny's friends looked up to signify that they were paying attention, though they still continued preparing their battle supplies.

"There are going to be a lot of dangerous spells flying around out there, but there is one that you must avoid at all costs. It's not a matter of trying, either; you do, or you die." Harry's eyes were dark, and his face unhappy as he added, "The Killing Curse kills instantly upon impact. It's a bright, sickly green– a bit reminiscent of ectoplasm– and the incantation is Avada Kedavra." He finished.

"Thanks for the heads up," Tucker said sincerely, looking a bit queasy.

Harry just nodded and Danny proceeded to float Harry and Sirius up through the floor of the first and second stories, noting with mild satisfaction that the couch his parents were so conveniently sitting on was the one directly below the balcony. Meaning, of course, that unless they moved, they'd have no way of seeing Harry or Sirius. And Danny wouldn't give them time to move.

Making sure that Harry and Sirius were hidden and ready, he quickly skulked, invisibly of course, into Jazz's room, where his sister was sitting at her desk, presumably doing summer studies. He quietly shut the door, and crept over to where she sat.

Steeling himself, he said as softly as he could, "Jazz, it's me."

The red head jumped, heart leaping in surprise as she spun around. She closed her eyes as she recognized her brother's voice, taking deep breaths through her nose.

"You know I hate it when you do that," She scolded, though she kept her voice down realizing that Danny wouldn't be sneaking around without a reason.

"Jazz, I need you to listen, and don't say anything before I finish, okay?" The urgency in her brothers voice scared her tremendously, but she stifled her impulse to interrogate and simply nodded, sitting back down.

She heard him take a deep breath before starting, "Those two tourists from England aren't tourists, they're wizards. Extremely long story short, there's an evil, magic wielding Dark Lord here in Amity Park right now, he's after me, and he and his minions could attack at any moment. Right now, Harry, Sirius, Sam, Tucker and I are preparing for the attack."

Jazz just gaped into the seemingly empty air where she heard Danny's voice come from. "Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound? Never mind. What exactly do you want me to do?" Jazz mind was whirling and making her light-headed, but she could feel the cold tension radiating from her brother, and knew that at his point it would be better to 'shoot first, ask later', or something to that affect.

"I'm gonna knock mom and dad out and take them to a relatively safe place," Danny said, ignoring the incredulous look on Jazz's face, "I want you to go with them. This is going to be dangerous."

"No way in hell, Danny!" Jazz hissed vehemently, "I'm not just going to sit around while you go running recklessly off into another perilous fight! Sam and Tucker are staying with you, right? Well so am I!"

The finality with which she spoke made Danny sigh in exasperation but give in anyway. What was with his family and friends always wanting to put themselves in danger? He'd have to talk with them about that. "Fine. Sam and Tucker are in the basement; they'll be able to fill you in more."

Without stopping to ask permission, Danny scooped up Jasmine and, ignoring her indignant squawk of surprise at being handled so without warning, flew her quickly down into the basement, where Sam and Tucker stood waiting for further instructions.

"Once Jazz is ready, the three of you should wait in the basement doorway. Don't come out until it's clear some sort of conflict has begun, alright? We need all the 'element of surprise' we can get." He commanded.

"Yes, sir!" Both Sam and Tucker smiled cheekily and gave mock salutes, making Danny grin at them briefly before flying up through the ceiling/floor and, invisibly, facing his parents.

Okay, Danny thought, feeling nervous like he always did about attacking his own parents, but raising his arm to take aim nonetheless. Just one quick shot to the back of the head, and then—

Suddenly, a nock at the front door made Danny spin around and tense in apprehension. He watched, breath held and body poised to rush in and defend against intrusion as Maddie got up from the coach and trotted over to answer the door.

What he was not expecting, however, was for Danielle to be standing on the front door step.

;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;

A/N: Sorry for how short it is. I got kinda stuck, and figured it would be better to upload what I had now rather than wait for my inspiration to return in another couple of months to finish the chapter.

Consequently, I failed to get to the action-y part. My sincerest apologies. Next chapter for sure, though! Also, I'm not thrilled with this chapter either. I feel like my writing has gotten very... dry. D: And there's so much planning... would it be better to just jump right into the battle? I suppose so. But I just figured they would have talked a _little_ bit about what to do... hn.

Til next time.

;-;Adrian Winter;-;


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